


Double-Edged

by naktibalda



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Curses, Dirty Talk, Don't copy to another site, Fluff and Smut, Lots of Touching, M/M, Oblivious Tony Stark, Pet Names, Sex, appearances from other Avengers, canon is an ice-cream parlor and i'm picking and choosing what i want from it, i can't handle this many characters, i got no knowledge of anything so just go with this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 19:31:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19279699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naktibalda/pseuds/naktibalda
Summary: Double-edged (adj.): capable of acting two ways; having two contradictory aspects.***“She didn’t--it wasn’t--curses are not real,” Tony finally settles on because it’s true. “I’m not cursed. It’s not a curse.” He refuses to believe that. Sure, he’s seen what Loki can do, he’s met the asshole Strange, and witnessed magic first-hand. But curses? That’s fairy-tale stuff. What’s next? Are they going to fight the big bad wolf?Steve hums beside him and Tony turns his head to see that he’s got a contemplative expression on his face.“No, Steve,” Tony reprimands him.“Maybe Banner is right,” Bucky says from Tony’s other side and Tony groans. “Maybe wearedealing with a curse.”





	Double-Edged

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I'll need you to suspend your disbelief here and accept that Tony and Steve and Bucky could actually be friends for five minutes. Think of this as another universe in the multiverse where Ultron, Civil War, and all the other crap didn't happen. This is absolutely self-indulgent because Endgame destroyed me.
> 
> Hope you have fun reading this!  
> -E

Tony takes a decisive step forward and his breath catches. There’s a tingle going up his spine, making his fingers go numb; a warning. But he only clenches his jaw and takes the second step. His knees hit the ground immediately, bursts of pain radiating from his chest throughout his whole body. Tony gasps, his lungs refusing to cooperate.

And then, as suddenly as it started, the pain disappears, leaving him gulping down lungfuls of air. Steve’s hands wrap around his biceps and Tony stands, leaning on him for a second.

“That enough experimentation for you, doc?” Bucky asks Bruce none too kindly. He’s somewhere to the left but Tony’s vision is spotty and the lab they’re in is spinning.

“Do you wanna sit down?” Steve asks him, voice sounding concerned.

“You’re full of great ideas as always,” Tony replies and doesn’t protest in the slightest as he’s lead the few steps to the chair.

An ache slowly blooms behind Tony’s eyes and he digs the heels of his hands into them. The pressure lessens the pain for a second. “So what we thinkin’, Bruce?” he asks, blinking out the spots and focusing on the man.

Bruce is rubbing at the stubble on his chin. “This is highly unusual,” he says and Tony scoffs. “There’s no medical or biological reason that this should be happening.”

“I know,” Tony grits out. He’s thought and rethought this ridiculous impossible situation during the whole flight back home. What has he got to show for it? Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. This doesn’t make sense at all and it’s driving Tony crazy.

“And it’s only Steve and Bucky?” Bruce asks.

Tony frowns. The two soldiers have been hovering too close to him since this started; he didn’t even consider that any person would do. “I…don’t know,” he finally says. Then, “Let’s see.”

“Tony,” both Bucky and Steve chorus, one more of a growl while the other more like a warning.

He waves them off. “It’s fine. Take a step back, please.”

The both of them share a look like they’re wont to do, like they can read each other’s minds, understand each other just from a glance. And from what Tony witnessed during the last year, it’s quite possibly true; he’s still mulling over the mind reading theory. But they’ve known each other since they’ve been kids and they share a bond the likes of which Tony has never seen, much less experienced with anyone. Sometimes it shocks Tony just how envious he is of that.

But they listen to him and move back. Tony shivers as the tingling sensation returns but motions Bruce over. Bruce gets close, right into Tony’s personal space, but his presence doesn’t help. There’s still static running through Tony’s fingers and his headache intensifies.

“Yeah, I think this is making it worse,” Tony sighs, rubbing at his forehead.

Steve and Bucky return to his side while Bruce steps back. The tingling goes away immediately and the headache dulls to a throb. “How is this even possible?” Tony grumbles.

“We’ll figure it out,” Steve promises. His hand lands on Tony’s shoulder, rubbing small circles with his thumb over Tony’s exposed collarbone. And huh. The headache disappears. Tony stows that tidbit away for later.

“What exactly happened during the mission?” Bruce inquires. His eyes catch on Steve’s hand but he doesn’t comment. Tony’s grateful for that.

“This idiot,” Bucky cuffs Tony over the head and Tony lets out a disgruntled ‘hey’, “was playing the hero as usual--”

“We’re all technically playing heroes,” Tony interrupts but Bucky pays him no mind.

“And he got to the hostile without back-up. Next thing we know he’s screaming into the comms and the hostile’s gone,” he finishes with a glare of his icy eyes directed at Tony.

“Which was completely against my orders,” Steve adds, squeezing Tony’s shoulder in reprimand. “If you’d waited two minutes, someone would’ve gone in with you.”

The building structure was damaged, Tony didn’t want anyone near it. Unlike the others, his suit can somewhat withstand a building collapsing on it.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony says dismissively. He’d do it again in a heartbeat and they all know it so there’s no point in arguing over it. “She mumbled some mumbo jumbo at me when I tried to apprehend her and then my vitals went crazy, and well,” he waves at himself indicating the current problem they’re facing.

Bruce raises an eyebrow. “She’s a magic user?”

“Not like the magic I’ve seen.” Loki and Strange come to Tony’s mind instantly. But this hostile was nothing like them, less glowing runic circles mid-air and not that much flair. Though the dramatics were there. Maybe it’s a magic user thing. “This was more hand-waving Harry Potter without the wand bullshit.”

“So she cursed you?” Bruce’s brows furrow. “That’s beyond my expertise, Tony.”

“She didn’t--it wasn’t--curses are not real,” Tony finally settles on because it’s true. “I’m not cursed. It’s not a curse.” He refuses to believe that. Sure, he’s seen what Loki can do, he’s met the asshole Strange, and witnessed magic first-hand. But curses? That’s fairy-tale stuff. What’s next? Are they going to fight the big bad wolf?

Steve hums beside him and Tony turns his head to see that he’s got a contemplative expression on his face.

“No, Steve,” Tony reprimands him.

“Maybe Banner is right,” Bucky says from Tony’s other side and Tony groans. “Maybe we _are_ dealing with a curse.”

“Not you too,” Tony near whines. Steve only absently rubs his shoulder like it soothes away the betrayal of them both believing this nonsense.

“It’s the most plausible explanation, Tony,” Bruce says, backing them up. Another traitor. “You had your suit on, so she can’t have injected you with something. And you can’t have breathed something in because the rest of the team would’ve been affected too. Also, the fact that it seems connected only specifically to Bucky and Steve…” he trails off and even though Tony doesn’t want to admit it, he kind of sees the logic in it.

It’s still bullshit in his opinion though. The laws of physics and biology should make curses an impossibility, they don’t make sense science-wise, but Tony can’t deny the actual physical impact this has on him. This whole conundrum is bringing back the headache.

“What do we do now then?” Steve asks.

Bruce gives Tony a look and Tony knows what he’ll say and he knows it’s their only option, but damn it, he’s not going to pretend to be happy about it. “We need to contact Strange,” Bruce answers Steve and Tony frowns at the words.

“I don’t think he’ll feel inclined to help me,” Tony mutters. The couple of times Strange helped the team, he and Tony didn’t exactly ‘get along’.

“He’ll help Captain America,” Bucky says, sending a grin Steve’s way. “No one can say no to him.”

Even though the idea is extremely appealing, Tony’s not a damsel and he doesn’t need others fighting his battles. “No, I’ll talk to him myself.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “But feel free to stop me if I start insulting him without even realizing.”

“If,” Steve huffs, mocking. Tony hits his chest with the back of his hand.

“Sir, the team is requesting an update on your situation,” JARVIS interrupts them.

“Tell them we’ll be there in a minute,” Tony replies.

Bucky and Steve stay close to Tony as they walk to the elevator and step into the lounge a minute later. The team is on their feet as soon as the elevator doors open.

“So what’s the verdict?” Rhodey asks, arms crossed. “You gonna live?”

“We, uh,” Tony hesitates. He can’t make himself say it. It’s ridiculous. He’s not about to admit to his friends that some witch or whatever the hell she is cursed him like a heroine of one of those Disney movies.

“We think it’s a curse,” Steve announces instead of him. “The woman might be a magic user, and we think she cursed Tony during their brief interaction.”

“A curse?” Wilson echoes, lips twitching in amusement. “Now that’s something new.”

Natasha’s eyes are calculating. “I might know someone who deals with this kind of stuff.”

“Oh, thank god,” Tony groans. “I really didn’t want to deal with Strange.”

Nat gives him a smile. It’s wicked. “No, you should talk to him too. The more information we have, the better.”

The glare Tony musters up doesn’t affect her in the slightest.

“So it’s nothing serious?” Barton asks.

“Well, I can’t move more than three feet away from the wonder duo,” Tony gestures at the two soldiers currently flanking him, “before being blinded with pain, but that’s more of a me problem so.”

Barton’s grin rivals Natasha’s. “Doesn’t seem like a big problem to me.” And he actually winks at Tony. Winks!

Tony rolls his eyes. Does everyone know about Tony’s dirty little secret? “Alright, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, let’s go talk to the asshole extraordinaire.”

“I thought that was you,” Bucky smirks. Tony tries to shove him but Bucky only laughs as Tony’s attempt fails. Damn super soldiers.

“Maybe you should change out of your battle gear first,” Bruce suggests wisely as the three of them turn to the elevator.

***

“So how are we gonna do this?” Tony wonders, looking from the soldiers to their bathroom door.

The three of them really need showers after the mission they’ve had, but Tony’s curs--situation, it’s a situation, goddamn it, – is complicating even that.

Steve runs a hand through his hair, mussing it up even more. “Rotation?” he suggests.

“Yeah, and I thought we just jump in the shower all together at once,” Tony answers deadpan. Not that it wouldn’t be nice.

Bucky snickers either at Tony’s words or the blush that appears on Steve’s skin. Or maybe both. “The way I see it, there’s no other option but for two of us to stay next to the shower while the other showers.”

“This is going to take forever,” Tony complains as he trails after the soldiers who collect their normal street wear before all of them walk into the bathroom.

Tony leans against the glass wall of the shower, looking up at the ceiling as Bucky strips first.

“Didn’t take you for the shy type, Tony,” Bucky comments. Tony hears knives clinking on the tiled floor.

“Just don’t want to get punched by your boyfriend for ogling,” Tony replies easily. He doesn’t actually think Steve would do it, of course. Better safe than sorry though.

“I’m not the jealous type,” Steve says and Tony’s eyes immediately go to his face. There’s a small challenging smile there, his eyes mischievous.

They’ve been dancing around like this for the past few months. It has gotten even worse during the last few weeks, more touching and even more flirting. Not that Tony’s complaining. Who wouldn’t want two smart and gorgeous men flirting with them? But when both said men are in a relationship with each other? There’s only one conclusion Tony can come to and it’s that they want a threesome.

Maybe some time ago Tony would have jumped at that chance. But he couldn’t do a one-time thing with them now. He’d want more, so much more. Tony didn’t think he could feel this way about someone else again after Pepper, and certainly not about two someones. His own feelings have never been that kind to him though.

The shower turns on and Tony watches as Steve’s eyes hungrily track Bucky’s movements over Tony’s shoulder. He decidedly looks back at the ceiling.

Bucky’s quick and efficient and after a few minutes he’s trading places with Steve. Tony doesn’t miss the way Steve’s hand slides over Bucky’s stomach as Bucky pulls a t-shirt on. Tony’s own fingers twitch with the need to reach out and touch.

Damn it, this is pure torture.

“You don’t have any fresh clothes with you,” Bucky notes, looking Tony up and down.

Tony shrugs a shoulder. “We can go up to the penthouse after Steve’s done.” Steve hums in agreement.

God, this is wasting time they could spend convincing Strange to help them. There aren’t that many things Tony hates more than inefficiency, be it tech or life related. “This is a nuisance,” he voices his thoughts. “What are we going to do about sleeping arrangements? How are you two going to train when I have to be next to you at all times? You won’t be able to go on missions or anywhere really. Shit, this is going to ruin your lives and you’re not even the ones being affected.”

“Tony,” Bucky says, his hand landing on Tony’s shoulder. “This isn’t going to ruin anything. We’ll figure this out. No need to panic.”

Who’s panicking? Tony’s just stating the obvious, the logical conclusion to their dilemma. It’s only Tony that experiences the excruciating pain, both Bucky and Steve don’t feel a thing. By Tony’s quick calculations it’s a lot more likely than not that this whole thing will blow up in their faces spectacularly. It shouldn’t take long until they can’t stand the sight of Tony and him always being in their space.

Fuck, this _is_ a curse.  And it’s specially designed for Tony to lose two of the most important people in his life while emotionally torturing him along the way. There probably aren’t two worse people in the whole world for Tony to be connected to like this.

“Hey, come on, breathe with me,” Bucky’s tone is commanding. He’s got his metal arm, the one Tony spent weeks perfecting, on Tony’s chest, his other hand is gripping Tony’s own against Bucky, forcing him to feel how Bucky’s chest rises and falls with each breath.

“Breathe in and out, Tony,” Steve says behind him. Tony didn’t even notice him leaving the shower. Steve’s hand is on Tony’s hip, the other has made its way around Tony and on top of Bucky’s metal one. “You’re fine. We’ll sort this out.”

With both their guidance, Tony’s breathing evens out eventually. He runs his free hand down his face. “Shit. Sorry, guys.” It’s not like he hasn’t had a meltdown in front of them or the whole team before, all of them have done it at some point, but it’s still embarrassing as fuck.

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Steve says and squeezes his hip.

“Wanna borrow some of our clothes?” Bucky asks offhandedly, throwing a look to Steve over Tony’s shoulder. Tony feels Steve stiffen behind him, wonders if he disapproves of Bucky’s offer. “We would save a trip upstairs.”

Tony shakes his head. “Thanks, but I don’t want to impose even more.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Steve blurts out. Tony sees how Bucky’s lips twitch in amusement. “I mean, it’s fine. We don’t mind.”

“Alright,” Tony agrees without much fuss. They’re big boys and if it bothers them, they can use their words and tell him so.

Clothes collected, soldiers leaning against the glass divider, Tony turns on the spray of the shower. He tries to focus his mind on how he’ll beg Strange to help him, but he’s naked and there’s two extremely attractive men at arm’s length, so Tony’s mind wanders. He stops himself before it gets too real and turns the water to cold for the last couple of minutes.

***

Stepping up to the Sanctum, Tony’s not quite sure if they should knock or what, but he’s saved from that decision when the door opens to reveal an unimpressed looking Strange.

“Stark,” he says, assholery evident even in that one word. “And Captain Rogers with Sergeant Barnes,” Strange adds, eyes moving to the two soldiers at Tony’s sides. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” He waves them in.

“We have a situation,” Tony tells him reluctantly. “We-- _I_ need your help,” he grits out.

Strange quirks up an eyebrow, a slight smirk appearing on his face. “Oh, really? What with?”

“I…” Tony still can’t say it. It’s too fucking ridiculous.

“Tony’s been cursed,” Steve saves him again. “You’re the only person we know that uses magic. We thought you could help.”

“Cursed?” Strange eyes Tony critically. “I can’t help with that. The mystical arts have never been involved with the primitive magic.” He sounds disdainful as he talks about it.

“So you know nothing about curses?” Tony crosses his arms. Great. They just wasted their time and Tony’s limited sources of patience for nothing.

“Not quite so,” Strange answers with that irritating all-knowing smile.

Tony’s jaw clenches when in typical fashion Strange doesn’t fully answer a question. Bucky presses closer to Tony, the cold metal of his arm making goosebumps appear on Tony’s exposed skin. But he’s grateful for the contact.

“But you know something of this primitive magic?” Bucky questions.

“Yes,” Strange answers, turning his eyes to Bucky.

When nothing else is forthcoming, Tony grits out, “Care to elaborate? We’re not here because we’re aware of this magic bullshit.”

Steve’s hand lands on Tony’s shoulder, squeezing lightly. Tony didn’t even realize how tense he’d become and he makes an effort to relax. If Strange notices their interaction, he doesn’t comment. Instead, he informs them in a drone about what this primitive magic is.

“It’s the magic the witches of this world use. It harnesses the energy of the earth. It can be quite powerful but it is also extremely disruptive and dangerous, especially for easily corruptible people.”

“And these witches can curse people?” Tony asks.

“Aren’t you proof of that?” Strange looks him over again and Tony feels his eye twitch at the sheer annoying nature of this man.

“Doctor Strange,” Steve addresses him, a lot more in control than Tony is at the moment. “We’d appreciate any information you have about this primitive magic and curses.”

“Of course, Captain,” Strange agrees easily. “Follow me.”

He turns, walking off into the depths of the building, and the three of them trail after him.

“Told you that no one can resist Captain America,” Bucky whispers in Tony’s ear.

“It’s the eyes,” Tony whispers back. “He should patent that do-as-I-ask-or-you’ll-be-letting-the-whole-of-America-down look. It’s a major guilt trip.”

“And I always thought it’s the deliciously broad shoulders and rock hard abs,” Bucky comments in an innocent tone.

Tony snorts a laugh as Steve grumbles, “You’re both fucking idiots.” He sends them each a glare.

“Aw, Stevie, don’t be like that,” Bucky pouts at him but Steve only shakes his head, muttering something too low for Tony to hear.

They follow Strange into a library with rows upon rows of books. Tony immediately starts calculating how long it would take JARVIS to scan all of them and then sort through the information. The numbers aren’t promising.

Strange leads them in deeper, easily navigating between the massive bookshelves. He stops in the corner of the humongous room and sweeps his hand at the, compared to the rest of the library, few books on the shelves. There’s maybe a hundred of them by Tony’s estimation.

“The primitive magic section,” Strange declares. “You’re welcome to read anything from here.”

Tony immediately takes out his phone. “JARVIS does most of my required reading.”

“Stark,” Strange says, tone hard. “None of what is in these books gets uploaded to your server or anywhere else. These books are not to be digitized. Do you understand me?”

Tony narrows his eyes at him. “You expect me to wade through all this nonsense,” Tony waves at the books, “manually for just one fucking curse?”

Strange stares at him, immovable. “Yes.”

Tony scoffs, shaking his head. “No, that’s just stupid. If you’re worried about the information leaking, no one in the world has safer servers than me--”

“You will not digitize those books,” Strange says with finality. “If you don’t agree to my terms, you can leave.”

Steve steps in front of Tony, hands placating as he addresses Strange. “Thank you for agreeing to help us. I will make sure that your rules don’t get broken.”

Strange’s demeanor shifts. He nods his head politely at Steve. “I’ll trust you to keep your word, Captain.” Strange leaves the three of them alone after giving Tony a pointed glare. Tony wants to stick his tongue out at him and barely holds himself back.

“We’re not actually listening to him, right?” Tony asks Steve, waving his phone at him.

Steve grabs the object, stuffing it into his own pocket. “Less temptation,” Steve smirks when Tony lets out a protesting squawk.

“That’s personal property, Rogers,” Tony says.

“So is this,” Steve tugs at the t-shirt Tony’s wearing. It’s one of Steve’s.

Tony turns to Bucky. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but help me defend my rights against Captain America.”

Bucky looks at Tony and then turns to Steve. “I agree with Tony, Steve. We should all get our personal properties back. The t-shirt Tony’s wearing is yours, isn’t it?”

They share a grin and Tony rolls his eyes, seeing where this is going.

“You’re absolutely right, Bucky.” Steve offers Tony his phone. “A trade?”

“You know what?” Tony grumbles at both of them. “You’re assholes.”

Bucky’s arm winds around Tony’s middle, pulling him into Bucky’s chest. “But you still love us.”

“Let go, Barnes,” Tony pushes at him futilely, considering that Bucky’s a super soldier. “We have a fuckton of books to read through.”

Bucky smacks a kiss to Tony’s temple before letting him go.

They set up at one of the low tables with a sofa, having carried over four books each. Tony settles himself in the middle, ready for a long and arduous day of research into something he hates. At least he’s got good company, he thinks as Steve’s fingers sink into Tony’s hair at the nape of his neck and Bucky presses his back to Tony’s side.

***

They get back home after midnight. Tony still thinks it’s bullshit that Strange didn’t let them scan the books and upload them to Tony’s server where JARVIS could look through them a lot faster. The three of them didn’t even make a dent in Strange’s collection. Especially with Steve’s insistence that they read everything carefully so to not miss an important detail. Tony’s sick of reading about flowing of energies and the best ways to connect with mother earth.

On the way back, Tony informed Bruce of their progress and he promised to meet them at the Sanctum tomorrow and help look through the books. Tony also asked for an update from Natasha and Barton on their mission to find a witch Nat once worked with. _We’ve got a lead_ , is all that Nat texts him back. The lack of more information makes Tony think it’s not a viable one.

The three of them get into the elevator and Tony leans against the wall, the cold metal soothing the ache in his temples. It takes him a second to realize that they’re not moving.

“The penthouse, or Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes’ floor, sir?” JARVIS prompts.

All Tony can utter is, “Uh.”

“Our floor, please, JARVIS,” Steve says. To Tony he adds, “Our bed is bigger.”

Tony snorts. Right, that. It was pretty hilarious when Bucky came to him asking if they could somehow get a bigger and sturdier bed. Tony provided, of course. Now their bed is capable of withstanding whatever shenanigans the super soldiers get up to. Tony both tries to not think about it and can’t help the fantasies this information musters up.

All other thoughts leave Tony’s head when he sees the bed in question in front of him. They’ve been called into the mission in the middle of the night and usually Tony is fine functioning on little to no sleep, but he feels absolutely exhausted right now.

He’s a bit too eager though. Pain blooms in his chest as he hurries forward, but before it can fully manifest, there are arms around his middle. “Whoa, three feet, remember?” Bucky says.

“Yeah, thanks,” Tony mutters. There’s still an ache behind the reactor but nothing that Tony isn’t used to.

“You okay, Tony?” Steve asks.

Bucky and he turn. Steve’s right at the entrance. More than three feet away. Probably lagged behind when Bucky hurried to catch him. “Huh,” Tony says, processing the new information quickly. “Could you back up more?” There’s a theory forming in his mind.

“You sure?” Steve checks.

Tony nods. “It doesn’t hurt much.”

“But it does hurt?” Bucky questions from beside him. He’s got his eyebrows furrowed and his fingers twitch by his sides like he wants to reach out to Steve and pull him closer.

“It’s fine. I can barely feel it,” Tony answers. “If at least one of you can get away from me, then half the problem’s solved.”

“We don’t--It’s not a problem,” Steve says, walking closer but halting when Tony raises his hand.

“Humor me,” Tony asks.

Steve huffs. He walks back a few paces so he’s out the door. The ache stays a constant low hum. Tony tells him to back up more. Steve shouts that he’s reached the elevator and Tony smirks. “Perfectly fine,” he tells Bucky with a smile. Bucky raises a skeptical eyebrow.

“So?” Steve asks, coming back.

“I think one of you is free if the other stays close,” Tony muses aloud. “Needs further testing though. Buck?” he turns to him.

Bucky doesn’t seem too inclined to move but Tony pushes at him and he walks away slowly. He reaches the elevators, just like Steve, before returning to Tony’s side. Tony grins at him. “Checks out.”

“But it’s better when we both stay close, right?” Bucky asks.

Tony rubs a hand against the arc reactor. “Well, yeah,” he says. “But if one of you wants to get away then you have the option.”

They share another one of those looks that Tony can’t quite interpret. “We’d rather not cause you unnecessary pain,” Steve says.

Tony wants to argue and he’s about ready to do so when Bucky tugs at both him and Steve. “Come on, it’s late,” he says. “Come to bed. You can argue tomorrow.”

“We’re not arguing,” Tony says. “Who’s arguing? We’re just discussing options.”

Bucky rolls his eyes as Steve huffs a little laugh beside him.

They get into bed and it’s like the exhaustion hits Tony full force again. He only bothers enough to kick off his jeans. Well, Bucky’s jeans as he borrowed both of their clothes. He settles at the far left, closer to the window, curling into a ball and sighing at finally being able to close his eyes. He’s being shaken not two seconds later.

“Wha’d you want?” he grumbles at Steve.

“Move, that’s my spot,” is the reply that Tony’s too tired to analyze. Instead, he just rolls away, closer to Bucky on the other side, and lets Steve slide in.

He hears the softly mumbled ‘JARVIS, lights, please’ and then Tony’s out himself.

***

There are hands on Tony’s stomach, underneath his t-shirt. He tenses, panic seeping into every cell, before he remembers what happened yesterday. Exhaling slowly, Tony opens his eyes.

“Morning,” Steve smiles at him. He’s got his head propped on his right hand while his left is intertwined with Bucky’s on Tony’s stomach.

“Have you been watching us sleep?” Tony asks, a yawn escaping him. “’Cause that’s creepy, Steve.”

Steve doesn’t take the bait. His eyes slide from Tony to Bucky who’s got his face smushed into Tony’s shoulder. “He’s been sleeping better lately,” Steve murmurs. Tony feels his fingers move, caressing Bucky’s, and a shiver runs through Tony. “When I got him back, he used to not be able to sleep more than an hour before waking up and having to check if everything is secure.”

Tony remembers that. He’d walk onto the common floor in the middle of the night after a creative binge in his workshop and find Bucky pacing around, glaring out the windows. At first Tony left him be, but after a couple of times Tony started talking to him while mooching for a snack in the kitchen. Well, talk _at_ him would be more accurate. It took some time before Bucky started to respond. That was nearly a year ago.

“But he feels safe here now,” Steve continues. “Thanks to you.”

Tony frowns. “Me? I didn’t do anything,” he protests. “It was you who got him back and helped him to unscramble his brain.”

“But you provided him with a home.” Steve’s smile is a gentle thing that Tony doesn’t feel like he deserves. “He’s only started settling in when you two started getting along. I think he believed you’d kick him out any minute before that.”

Tony wouldn’t have. Even when Bucky was a stranger to him, he wouldn’t have because he was important to Steve. And even before Tony realized his feelings for Steve, he would have done anything to make him happy. If that required housing his ex-assassin boyfriend and watching them getting cozy, well, then Tony happily obliged.

Tony clears his throat, asks, “Don’t you have anything better to do? What time is it anyway?”

“It’s six twenty-four a.m., sir,” JARVIS responds promptly.

Steve huffs a laugh. “Can’t exactly leave you.”

“I’ve got Bucky,” Tony says. “I know you’re itching for a run. Go call Wilson, annoy someone else for a change.”

A furrow appears between Steve’s eyebrows. “I told you, I don’t want to cause you unnecessary pain.”

“And I told you that I can barely feel it. It’s the same as having this,” Tony taps the reactor in his chest. “I’m used to it, I don’t even notice it anymore.”

Now Steve’s worrisome gaze focuses on the blue light. Tony can see that he needs an extra push. “Besides, I want to test the limits of this thing. Science comes first.”

Steve’s eyebrow quirks. “I doubt there’s anything scientific about a curse.”

Tony makes a face. “It’s not a curse,” he grumbles simply on instinct.

“If I go,” Steve starts.

“Please, for the love of god, just go,” Tony interrupts.

Steve shoots him a not amused look. “If I go, do you promise to let me know the second you start feeling worse?”

“If I get in any pain, JARVIS will let you know immediately, right, J?”

“Of course, sir.”

Steve hesitates for a few more seconds before sighing out an ‘okay’. His fingers slip from Bucky’s and away from Tony’s skin, and Tony watches him get up and get ready. There’s a little painful tug in Tony’s chest as Steve walks further away and Tony ignores it as it settles into a low level ache.

Tony borrows Steve’s StarkPad, with permission of course, while he waits for Bucky to join the land of the woefully awake. He replies to some emails and looks over a few designs the R&D team has sent over. They’re promising, and Tony’s glad the new hires seem to be capable.

Bucky moves some time later. His arm slides over Tony, pulling him impossibly closer, and he nuzzles into Tony’s neck, the scratch of his beard makes Tony jump. “Steve?” he asks against Tony’s skin, and Tony swallows down any emotions that conjures up.

“Uh, Tony, actually,” he corrects Bucky, expecting him to draw back, but Bucky only snorts.

“I know who I’m in bed with,” Bucky replies. His fingers are languidly running up and down Tony’s side. “I meant, where’s Steve?”

Good to know that Bucky wakes up ready to flirt. “He’s out for a run.”

That makes Bucky pull away, eyes running all over Tony. “And you’re not in pain?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “I’m fine,” he says, tossing the StarkPad onto the bed and sitting up. “Actually, I’m kind of hungry. Breakfast?” he suggests.

It doesn’t take much persuasion from Tony to lure Bucky to Tony’s workshop after breakfast. Tony had been fine tuning Steve’s bike before this whole debacle started and so he walks right to it. His hands are itching for some tangible work. Bucky parks himself next to Tony, handing him tools when asked, and they work in companionable silence.

Tony never thought he’d have this with Bucky. When Steve brought him back over a year and a half ago, Bucky was nothing more than a brainwashed Hydra agent to Tony. But all those late nights spent talking at him and then with him, and all those hours in the lab when Bucky listened to Tony babble about his latest project fascinated by it, and all the missions they’ve been on during the last few months, it all brought Tony closer to Bucky than he could ever thought possible.

Tony’s not exactly sure when the envy of seeing Bucky be the one receiving all of Steve’s affection turned into the need to be the one to give it to Bucky. A confusing dream, or five, might have awakened something in Tony. Something that is selfish and greedy and covets both their affection. He tried to shut it down, honestly. But his flirtatious and egotistical nature won.

So now here Tony is, enjoying the slide of Bucky’s fingers over his as he hands Tony a tool and knowing that’s all he gets to have. But it’s enough, Tony tells himself. He’d never risk sabotaging what Bucky and Steve have by admitting his own feelings for them. And he definitely wouldn’t want to sabotage the friendship he has with both of them. Tony will suffer through this curse, enjoy what they give him, and it’ll all go back to normal soon.

The low level ache in Tony’s chest gets more and more distracting as the minutes pass. It feels as if someone’s trying to slowly pull his heart out of his chest. Tony manages to breathe through it, focusing his attention on the vehicle he’s working on, but his vision swims and the wrench Bucky gives him slips through his fingers. The clatter of it in the silent workshop rattles Tony’s brain. Sharp pain bursts in his temple and Tony presses a hand to it.

“Tony?” Bucky asks, worry coloring his tone. His hand cups Tony’s jaw and Tony blinks rapidly at how fast the headache disappears.

“I’m fine,” he says.

“Which means you’re really not,” Bucky scoffs. “JARVIS, send a message to Steve, please. He should get back as soon as he can.”

“Right away, Sergeant,” is JARVIS’s smooth reply. Tony doesn’t even have it in him to protest that as it’s getting hard to breathe. “Captain Rogers says that he’s on his way,” JARVIS informs them.

“Have you been in pain long?” Bucky questions, lifting Tony’s chin so he can look him in the eye. “And I’ll know if you’re lying.” His icy eyes are narrowed at Tony.

“About half an hour,” Tony replies, adding before Bucky can start reprimanding him, “but it’s not as bad as you think. It’s manageable.”

“I don’t care if it’s manageable,” Bucky growls out. “The point is for you to not feel any pain at all.”

Tony huffs a short laugh at that. Yeah, right. Like having them close the past 24 hours and knowing that’d be impossible if he wasn’t in literal pain if they pulled away hasn’t been emotional hell.

“We want to help you, Tony,” Bucky says more gently now, his thumb stroking Tony’s cheek. “But we can’t do that if you don’t let us.”

“This is helping,” Tony whispers, closing his eyes and nuzzling into Bucky’s hand.

A few minutes later though Tony’s gasping for air. It becomes increasingly difficult to breathe even with Bucky so close to him. The pain in his chest intensifies with every passing second. When Tony finds that damn witch, he’s going to rip out her heart himself.

“Fuck, this sucks,” Tony mumbles breathlessly into Bucky’s shoulder where he’s leaned his forehead.

“Just a few more minutes, doll,” Bucky promises, fingers combing through Tony’s hair.

“Doll?” Tony repeats, laughing despite himself. That doesn’t help with the lack of oxygen in his lungs and he has to take a few stuttering breaths.

Bucky stiffens against him. “Shit,” he laughs himself. “Slipped out.”

“God, you’re fucking ancient,” Tony mutters.

“Captain Rogers is on his way up,” JARVIS informs.

A minute later the workshop doors are sliding open and Tony lifts his head to see Steve running towards them. He drops on his knees next to Tony, one hand gripping Tony’s own and the other settling on Tony’s nape.

“Whoa,” Tony gasps as the pain completely disappears. He takes a few deep breaths, appreciating that he can actually do so.

“I’m so sorry, Tony,” Steve is saying, lips pressing to Tony’s temple. “I went to see Strange after my run with Sam. I got back as soon as I got JARVIS’s text. I’m so--”

“If you say sorry again, I’m throwing you out,” Tony threatens. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t think it’d have a time limit. JARVIS, how long has Steve been out?”

“Captain Rogers left the tower two hours and eighteen minutes ago,” JARVIS responds. Then adds, reproach clear in his tone, “However, your stress levels rose after one and a half hours of not being in physical contact with Captain Rogers.”

“TMI, J,” Tony scolds. Steve and Bucky don’t need to know the finer details.

“So we’re maxing it at an hour?” Bucky asks, tone brooking no argument.

That’s never stopped Tony though. “I can manage two--”

“No,” the both of them say in unison. Then Steve continues, “An hour if absolutely necessary. We’re not leaving you.”

Tony only sighs, dropping his forehead back onto Bucky’s shoulder.

***

During his little morning trip, Steve managed to persuade Strange into letting them borrow a few books so they wouldn’t be disrupting the wizards at the Sanctum. Tony’s extremely grateful because he doesn’t know if he can stand being in Strange’s presence and trying to be polite to him for two days in a row.

“We should just have JARVIS scan the books,” Tony grumbles, flipping through only his second book today. Why do they have to be so damn thick?

“I promised we wouldn’t, Tony,” Steve gives him a look, the please-don’t-be-a-dumbass one.

“It would make this faster,” Bucky grumbles from where he’s sitting on the floor, leaning against Steve’s legs.

“Don’t encourage him,” Steve tells Bucky, whacking him on the head with the yellow pad he’s got in one hand. Tony thinks Steve’s taking this too seriously; half of the pad is already filled with notes.

“He wouldn’t even find out,” Tony adds.

Bucky turns around, one arm braced on Steve’s thigh. He smirks at Tony then turns an innocent expression onto Steve. “If you won’t tell him, we won’t either.”

“It might allow you to get rid of me faster,” Tony says as enticingly as he can. They might not have gotten sick of him yet but it’s barely been 36 hours.

It seems to be the wrong thing to say somehow. Both Steve and Bucky glare at him, and Tony quickly loses the only ally in this conversation.

“If you keep saying shit like that,” Bucky warns, “we might just get rid of you regardless.”

Tony rolls his eyes. His response stalls in his mouth when JARVIS announces, “Ms. Potts is on her way up, sir.”

A frown wrinkles Tony’s forehead. “Pepper?” he wonders. “Did I forget to sign some document, JARVIS? Or – shit – it’s not the first Tuesday of the month, is it?” Pepper and he have a standing lunch date. It’s difficult for them to catch up any other way as most conversations they manage to have these days involve work. But those Tuesdays are dedicated to pure gossip.

“It’s Friday,” Steve tells him, disbelief and worry on his face.

Tony waves him off. “I don’t pay attention to what day of the week it is.”

“How very billionaire of you,” Bucky comments with a twitch of lips. Tony flips him off and a whole smile spreads across Bucky’s face.

The elevator doors open and Pepper steps out as divine as ever. She stops in her tracks immediately upon seeing them. “You forgot,” she states, a small sigh escaping her.

Tony’s absolutely sure she’s right. “Forgot what? I checked my emails this morning, nothing urgent was there.”

“The science fair?” Pepper prompts, walking closer and crossing her arms. “We’re sponsoring local teen engineers and raising money for them to go to a university of their choice. You’re one of the judges.”

Tony narrows his eyes at her. That might ring a vague bell or two.

Pepper stares at him with her I’m-disappointed-in-you look. “I reminded you two days ago.”

“You really should’ve reminded me today,” Tony counters.

She shakes her head, mumbling a what Tony thinks is, “Why do I put up with you?” Then louder she says, “Stop talking back and get ready or we’ll be late.”

Tony considers his options, of which there aren’t many. Either he goes out in public with two very well-known super soldiers who are in a public relationship and who can’t be more than three feet away from him or he avoids rumors spreading in tabloids about him trying to break up said super soldier couple and stays right where he is. In essence, there’s really only one option.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m going,” Tony tells her.

Pepper’s eyes narrow at him. “Tony,” she says, a dangerous note in her voice that makes even Steve stiffen next to Tony. “You will go and get ready or even those two super soldiers won’t be able to protect you.”

“I’d listen to her,” Bucky stage whispers receiving a glare from Tony for that.

Tony turns back to her. “I can’t, Pep. No, really,” he hastens to say as he sees she’s ready to fight him over this. “Something happened during the mission yesterday.”

Her face changes immediately and she crosses the distance between them. She puts her hand on his arm which is resting on the sofa back. “What happened? Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

“It’s not that big of a problem.” He shrugs a helpless shoulder. “I got…cursed,” Tony grinds out.

Pepper’s face turns blank. “Cursed?” she asks in a flat tone. “Anthony Stark, if you think this will get you out of--”

“It’s true, Pepper,” Steve interrupts her. His earnest blue eyes don’t have to work much for anyone to believe him. “We didn’t know we were fighting a magic user. She cursed Tony.”

Pepper frowns. “What kind of curse?” Tony applauds her for not stumbling over the word. She’s a woman of science and reason as much as Tony is, so Tony’s not surprised she didn’t think he was serious at first.

“I can’t be apart from the ice soldiers without experiencing extreme pain,” Tony relies the basic information. “Believe me, I’ve tried but it’s about a three feet radius.”

Pepper glances between the three of them, no doubt noting how close Tony is sitting to Steve and how Bucky is also right there. Her eyes turn sad for a second as she looks straight at him. Pepper’s one of the two people that Tony actually told his little secret to; not that that stopped certain spies from figuring it out regardless. Then she sighs. “Why would you mess with someone who can curse you, Tony?”

Tony gapes at her. “Why would you assume it was my fault? I didn’t even know she had magic or cursing abilities or whatever. I tried to stop her from mind controlling more people and she used her voodoo on me. I was doing my job like the good little superhero I am. It wasn’t my fault.”

“It was kinda your fault,” Steve mutters beside him.

Tony gives him a betrayed look. “Steve,” he says softly, voice broken. “I’d expect that from Bucky, but you.”

“You should’ve waited for back up,” Bucky adds absolutely not helpfully.

“Alright,” Pepper says decisively, getting their attention back. “So we’ll go the four of us. I’m sure the kids will be glad to see Captain America and the Winter Soldier.” She sends a tentative smile to Steve and then Bucky.

“Pep, I literally can’t be away from at least one of them,” Tony tries to remind her.

“We’ll make it work.” Her tone doesn’t allow for more arguments.

***

The Midtown High School where the event is being held is teeming with paparazzi. Their flashes start going off as soon as Tony steps out of the car, followed by Steve. Bucky joins Tony’s other side while Pepper takes the lead, marching into the building.

Tony slips his glasses and a fake smile on as they walk to the entrance. There’s shouts of their names coming from all sides and questions which range from innocuous to wildly inappropriate, especially where kids are present. It’s nothing new to Tony or Steve, who’s been through similar experiences in his dancing monkey days, but Bucky doesn’t get accosted like this often and Tony feels him tense beside him.

“Come on, doll, no need to look so grim,” Tony leans closer to Bucky, easily linking their fingers when Bucky reaches for him. It’s probably not the smartest idea but Bucky relaxes a fraction, sending a small smile Tony’s way.

“Doll?” Steve repeats with a snort. “Haven’t heard that in a while.” But Tony knows he’s catching onto Bucky’s mood too as he subtly shifts next to him, so they’re flanking him, and puts a hand on Bucky’s lower back.

“You’re just jealous of our cute pet names, Steve, admit it,” Tony says.

“Oh, we’re at the pet name stage?” Steve throws him a smile even as he presses closer to Bucky who’s silently staring ahead.

“Big time, sugarplum,” Tony grins. “Or would you prefer love muffin? Cuddle bug? Sweet pea? Honey bear?”

Steve huffs a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Cuddle bug,” Bucky says, lips twitching as he glances at Tony and then Steve. “You’re definitely cuddly.”

“Signed and sealed,” Tony declares.

They enter the school lobby and the shouting dies behind the closed doors. Pepper directs them to the school’s principal and the board. A round of boring introductions and small talk follows as they make their rounds around the room.

The principal leads them to the gym where all the kids have their projects set up and are chatting amongst themselves or with the other judges that are walking around the room. There’s a hush that settles as they enter but it lasts only a few seconds before everyone goes back to their conversations. Though Tony can hear the whispered ‘what’s Captain America doing here?’ and ‘is that the Winter Soldier?’.

Pepper and the principal leave them at the kids’ mercy and Tony starts making his rounds with the super soldiers in tow. Every kid excitedly talks about their projects and Tony is impressed by how smart they are and the ideas they have come up with. There’s projects on everything ranging from AI to bioengineering. Some of them are still more theoretical as the kids lack the funds or the ability but damn it if Tony’s not impressed.

Steve and Bucky don’t manage to join in when the more scientific words start getting thrown around but they try and talk to the kids about why they chose their project or what school they’d go to if they won the main prize. And the kids eat it up. Tony’s never seen so many adoring smiles directed at Bucky or Steve in such a short amount of time.

“And what do we have here?” Tony questions as they approach the last table.

The kid is shaking with nerves, eyes huge as he stutters out, “Oh my god, Mr. Iron Man, I mean, Stark, Mr. Stark. So nice to meet you. You’re like the greatest engineer of your age.”

“My age?” Tony questions, not amused.

“Don’t flatter him too much, kid. His ego is already too inflated,” Bucky comments, smirking.

“Oh,” the kid gulps. “Sergeant Barnes, sir. And Captain America.” His eyes land on Steve and he straightens up, saluting him before quickly putting his hand down. “Do I need to do that? It’s a great honor meeting you, sir.”

Steve smiles at him. “You got a name, kid?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, uh,” the kid obviously panics. His eyes get even wider as he stares at the table separating them.

“Peter?” Bucky suggests, glancing at the name tag on the kid’s sweater.

“Yes,” the kid agrees enthusiastically. “Peter Parker. So nice to meet you all.”

Tony smiles at him, hoping it’ll put the kid at ease at least some. “What’s your project about, Pete?”

“So, uh,” the kid starts, “after all these alien attacks, a lot of alien tech was left here on Earth. And you know, there’s no way to quantify it or know the extent of it or its capabilities. And some of it has already gotten into the wrong hands, so what do we do to prevent it? We track down every piece and store it safely. So I came up with a sort of tracker for that tech.” He spins his laptop around. On screen there’s a world map with dozens of illuminated spots in clusters or by themselves.

“What’s the criteria for tracking?” Tony questions. He leans in, clicking a few buttons and going to see the code of the tracker for himself.

“Oh, radiation primarily,” Peter responds. “The deep space radiation is of much higher energy than anything on Earth so.”

Tony nods, seeing it for himself. “Smart. But I would suggest upping the gamma radiation level criteria because now you’re also tracking every nuclear plant and physics lab on Earth.”

“Whoa,” Peter says, grabbing the laptop back and typing intently. “You’re so right.”

“I usually am,” Tony shrugs a shoulder, receiving a nudge from Steve. “It’s true!” Tony defends himself.

“What Tony means is good job, Peter,” Steve tells the kid.

“I, uh,” the kid blinks at Steve like he can’t quite believe what he heard. “Thank you,” he says sincerely.

“Great work, kid,” Tony adds. “Don’t let college ruin your brain,” he warns as they walk away.

“Why’d you gotta say that to a kid?” Steve gripes. “Now he’ll go home and tell his parents that Tony Stark told him not to pursue higher education.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “I didn’t say that.”

“You kind of did,” Bucky comments and Tony only shrugs, not too bothered by that.

***

It hits the tabloids and social media pretty quickly. Tony only has to turn on his phone the next morning after the fair and his notifications go crazy.

“Could you shut that up?” Bucky grouses from where he’s pressed against Steve’s back, still nearly asleep.

They’re in the kitchen and Steve’s making them breakfast. Tony doesn’t even know what as he’s more focused on his phone than his surroundings at the minute.

“Fuck,” Tony swears emphatically as his eyes run over the headlines.

“What?” Steve leans to his left a bit, closer to Tony if that’s possible, and looks at his phone.

“I knew this would happen,” Tony grumbles. “That’s why I didn’t want to go.” He turns his phone around to show them the pictures from yesterday. Most of them are of Tony holding Bucky’s hand, close-ups of their intertwined fingers. Steve’s conveniently cropped out of the pictures or if he appears in them then the focus is on him looking away. The headlines read nonsense like ‘Iron Man steals Captain America’s sweetheart’ or ‘Secret Avenger’s affair’.

Bucky snorts, looking at the phone over Steve’s shoulder. “I like the one where it says you’re corrupting the Avengers.”

“This is not funny, Bucky,” Tony reprimands him. Both of the soldiers lift an eyebrow at him at that. “This could really hurt your reputation, and we’ve worked hard to build it up since you’ve joined the team. If you’re seen as the one who broke Captain America’s heart, how do you think people will react when you try and play a hero? They’re going to rip you to shreds at press conferences and all the good you will do won’t matter to them. The Avengers need to be trusted and liked by the public if we’re to help them.”

Bucky moves away from Steve to stand right in front of Tony, arms crossed and a frown firmly in place. “Who cares what some gossip magazines say? Our private lives are just that, ours. It doesn’t influence the way we do our jobs.”

“It influences the stock market, and merch sales, and the overall public opinion of us as a team,” Tony argues.

Jaw clenched and eyes hard, Bucky takes a step back. “So that’s what this is about? You’re worried your company’s stock will suffer?”

Tony frowns and shakes his head in disbelief. “What? Of course not. I’m just trying to make you understand that media is a powerful tool and they can build the narrative they want and that impacts us all.”

“Don’t patronize me, Stark,” Bucky near growls.

Steve puts a hand on his chest. “Buck,” he says, a warning in his tone.

Bucky only shrugs him off, taking another step back and it tugs at Tony’s heart. Literally. “I might be from the 40s but I know how propaganda works. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t matter to me how the public sees me. I’ll do my job regardless.”

Tony’s anger flares at not being able to make Bucky see how this affects them all. “What about how they see Steve then? Do you think this will reflect well on him?”

“Tony, stop,” Steve cuts him off firmly. “It’s just a few pictures. And you’re not doing anything scandalous in them. If you don’t want to be seen with either of us that way, we’ll avoid this in the future.”

Tony groans, running a hand through his hair. “It’s not about me. This is the least amount of drivel I’ve had written about me. I’m worried about you guys and how the public will see you now. You don’t have as much experience with this as me--”

“We can handle ourselves,” Bucky says, voice none too friendly. “We might be from a different century but we don’t need to be coddled.”

Tony grinds his jaw. “You do if you don’t understand the basic way the media works.” He glares at Bucky and Bucky glares right back, his metal arm letting out grating noises as he clenches his fist.

“Alright, enough,” Steve cuts both of them off. “Buck, go to the gym and cool off. Be back in an hour.” The command is said in his Captain’s voice and Bucky hesitates for only a second before storming off. Then Steve turns to Tony. “You’re getting the silent treatment,” he announces.

Tony widens his eyes, throwing his hands up. “What did I do?”

Steve ignores him, instead focusing on the sandwiches he’s making. Fine. Tony can be petty too. He turns back to his phone, eyes scanning the headlines again.

The good news is that most of the comments seem to be calling out the authors of such articles for not focusing on the actual news, like the inventions the kids presented at the fair and how impressive some of them were. A good portion is also defending the expression of male friendship in all its forms and a few kids from the event are sharing their stories on how genuinely happy and nice the three Avengers seemed during the evening.

Huh. So maybe Tony overreacted a bit. The media fiasco doesn’t seem to be much of a fiasco after all, and the public’s a lot more accepting than Tony thought they’d be. He probably should’ve given them more credit.

Tony munches on those thoughts while he munches the sandwich Steve shoves at him. He also thinks about what Bucky and Steve said to him. He doesn’t want them believing Tony’s afraid to be seen friendly with them or that he thinks they’re not capable of handling this century when they’ve proved to be anything but. Still, he worries about them and he can’t help it. The price of being in love, Tony thinks bitterly.

Steve nudges him when they finish eating and nods to the dishes in the sink.

“You, of course, want me to wash them by hand,” Tony guesses.

Steve’s silent but the small twitch of his lips betrays him.

Tony sighs but gets up, collecting their plates and adding them to the pile. “I feel like I’m being treated like a child,” Tony grumbles, turning the water on. Then an idea hits him and he turns to Steve who’s standing next to him, leaning against the counter. “Is this because of how I talked to Bucky? I wasn’t trying to be condescending.”

Steve lifts an eyebrow.

“Come on, I know that both of you grandpas are capable of looking after yourselves.” Tony picks up a knife, sticking it under the stream of water before swiping at it with the sponge. A burst of pain in his chest makes Tony gasp. His grip on the knife tightens as his muscles seize at the pain, and the sharp blade slices right through the sponge and into Tony’s left palm.

“Tony,” he hears Steve’s alarmed voice and there’s hands on him. But the pain doesn’t stop. It spreads quickly from his chest into the rest of his body. His vision goes spotty and the room starts spinning as the pressure in Tony’s temples builds unbearably.

Tony closes his eyes, groaning, feels himself being seated on the ground. Then cool metal presses against his cheek and Tony sighs in relief as the pain starts to recede. He blinks his eyes open to Bucky and Steve’s worried looks.

“It hasn’t even been an hour,” Bucky says, a furrow between his brows. There’s a few curls lose around his face and Tony wants to tuck them back.

“I know,” Steve confirms. “I have no idea what happened.”

Now that everything else isn’t burning with pain, Tony registers the ache in his left palm. There’s a towel wrapped tightly around it but blood has seeped through it, staining the material red. “Shit,” Tony mumbles looking at it.

“Let’s get you bandaged up,” Steve suggests. “Can you stand?”

Tony tries and mostly succeeds, but he does lean into Steve for support. The three of them move onto the couch when Bucky grabs the first aid kit. Tony’s mind clears as Steve cleans and wraps the wound that isn’t that deep and, Tony supposes, won’t need stitches.

“JARVIS, how long was Bucky away from me?” Tony asks, watching Steve tie a ribbon with the bandage.

“32 minutes, sir,” JARVIS replies. “The pain you experienced started at exactly the 30 minute mark and I informed Sergeant Barnes immediately.”

“Good job, J,” Tony praises. “Now we just need to figure out why the fuck it was so much less time this time around.” Tony makes an aborted move to lift his right hand and nervously tousle his hair before belatedly sensing that Bucky’s holding onto it. But Bucky misunderstands the move and retracts his hands. The immediate flash of pain makes Tony grab onto Bucky again.

“I believe physical contact is a necessity at this point, Sergeant Barnes,” JARVIS says as Tony can only gasp at the dizzying highs and lows of this pain seesaw.

“What are you saying, JARVIS?” Steve asks. “Is the curse progressing?”

“Not quite, Captain,” JARVIS replies. “According to the data I collected of the curse’s behavior and your and Sergeant Barnes’s closeness to sir, it seems that the curse responds positively to physical touch. While you were away from sir yesterday, Sergeant Barnes kept the physical contact constant. However, while Sergeant Barnes was away just now, there was no physical contact between you and sir. That might have shortened the time that Sergeant Barnes could be away without causing sir extreme pain.” Tony hears an accusatory note in JARVIS’s tone like he’s blaming Steve for not knowing the rules to this stupid curse and causing pain on Tony.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t--” Steve starts, eyes huge and guilty.

Tony shakes his head. “Not your fault. No one’s fault, really. But now we know the rules and we can plan better next time.”

“Unless there are more rules that we’re not aware of,” Bucky mutters bitterly.

“We can’t change that,” Tony shrugs a shoulder. “We don’t know anything about this curse. Let’s just find out how to get rid of it and then we won’t have to worry about it.”

They both nod at Tony’s words but none of them move. Tony, for his part, is not willing to subject himself to the pain again and however mad Bucky is at him, he’s clearly not about to do that either.

“I’m sorry about the fight earlier,” Bucky mutters, looking down at where he’s playing with Tony’s fingers.

“Yeah,” Tony sighs. “I’m sorry too. And apparently it’s not even that big of a deal as I thought it might be.”

“Told you,” Steve says, his smile is tentative. “You should have more trust in people.”

Tony doesn’t argue the point. “Maybe.” He doesn’t admit that Steve’s absolutely right, either.

***

Rhodey texts Tony late in the evening, asking how the research on the curse is going. He’s been covering for them with SHIELD, doing the briefings and enlisting their help to search for the mystery witch, and Tony’s immensely grateful for that. As much as he wishes he had his friend close though, Tony has to admit that it wouldn’t really help. They couldn’t talk openly anyway, not with two super soldiers right beside Tony at all times.

_Rhodey: How’s the other situation?_

Tony thinks it over. The casual touches and the overall closeness is nice. Tony can even pretend they’re enjoying some of this sometimes. But now he watches Steve give Bucky a cup of coffee and receive a chaste kiss on the lips for his effort, smiling into it, and his heart clenches for a second.

 _My personal emotional hell_ , Tony texts him back. He tucks the phone away as Steve offers the second cup he had to Tony. “You want a kiss from me too?” Tony jokes, reaching a hand for the cup.

Steve’s lips twitch. “Are you offering?” The cup is suddenly out of Tony’s reach.

“If I absolutely have to, anything to get my coffee,” he says mock serious.

Steve’s barely there smile turns sad for some reason as he hands Tony the cup. “I wouldn’t force you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

Tony raises an eyebrow at him, sipping his coffee and watching Steve settle beside him on the couch. “I know.” Tony’s jokes seem to not be landing well these days.

He turns back to the book in his lap that he’s been reading for the past couple of hours. A lot of it is about curses, just like with the rest of the books Strange lent them, and so far Tony figured out that he’s got a binding curse on his hands, tying him to Bucky and Steve. However, none of the three of them have been able to find the specific binding curse.

Bucky shifts beside him, putting his own book away and placing a hand on Tony’s knee to get his attention. “And you’d tell us if we did make you uncomfortable, right?”

Tony frowns at him. “Obviously.” He looks from Bucky to Steve. “Why? Is it making _you_ uncomfortable?”

“No, no,” Bucky shakes his head. He bites his lip before releasing a sigh. “It’s just--you keep saying how you want this to be solved faster so you could get away from us. Made me think.” He shrugs a shoulder.

“Me too,” Steve adds. “We haven’t really talked about the physical touching boundaries. I’m just assuming things at this point.”

“Well, your assumptions have been correct so far.” Tony lifts a shoulder in a shrug. He’s not about to admit to them how much he actually likes the touching. That’ll just make it weird when they get rid of the curse. “Listen guys, I’m game with anything that doesn’t cross major boundaries. You’ve been doing great so far, so just…keep up the good work?”

Bucky closes his eyes and shakes his head as Steve snorts. “Noted,” Steve says with a smile twitching at the corners of his lips.

They get back to the books. Bucky’s rhythmically tapping a pencil on his knee, a yellow pad on the sofa beside him. Tony’s making his own notes on his phone; Strange didn’t forbid digital note-taking at least. In all fairness, Tony wouldn’t be even doing it if Steve hadn’t insisted. Of course, he made a good point saying that they need to know as much as they can in preparation of facing the witch again. Doesn’t mean Tony has to be happy about it.

“That kid from yesterday,” Bucky says, lifting his head and squinting as he looks out the window. “The last one with the tracker thing. Didn’t he say he tracks energy?”

Tony lifts an eyebrow at the non-sequitur. “Radiation,” he specifies. “Which is a form of energy, yeah.”

Bucky glances back at the book. “And the witches channel energy from the earth that is expelled when they use magic.” He looks up at Tony. “So couldn’t we track that energy like with the radiation?”

Tony actually thinks about forgetting everything else and just kissing Bucky stupid. But instead of giving into his desires, he says, “JARVIS, show me unusual energy level spikes from the day of the mission.”

The holographic screen appears above the coffee table, and sure enough, right when the witch cursed Tony there was a spike in energy expulsion in that area. But also a few dozen more appear in that country alone at the same time.

“Seems like it could be something,” Steve comments.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony agrees. “I’ll just need to find more criteria to track only the magic-caused spikes.” He leans forward, grabbing the StarkPad from the table and looking at the data there. “Great thinking, Buck,” he adds, sending Bucky a smile.

***

The heavy panting and the unmistakable sound of kissing is what drags Tony’s mind into a more lucid state. He’s not yet ready to open his eyes as the last images of his dream cling to him.

“Bucky, Tony’s right there,” he hears Steve’s hushed voice. The last word turns into a low moan.

“You want me to wake him up? He could join us,” Bucky whispers back before the sound of slick kisses returns.

Tony’s eyelids flutter and he gazes through the veil of his eyelashes. Lying on his side, he has the perfect view of Steve pinned under Bucky, their hips grinding together, hands roaming each other’s bare chests, and lips meeting in the filthiest of kisses. Tony’s heart trips over itself in both lust and heartache.

Bucky’s movements suddenly stop and he turns his head to meet Tony’s now wide open eyes. He grins. “See something you like?”

“Jesus Christ,” Tony mutters turning onto his back and hiding his face in his hands. He can’t believe he just saw what he saw. This is both the best and worst case scenario.

“Buck, come on,” Steve says seriously. There’s some shuffling and Tony presumes they’ve untangled themselves. “Sorry, Tony. We just--”

Tony waves a hand at him, not daring to open his eyes just yet and knowing exactly what they just. “Don’t worry. I get it. Super soldier libidos and all that. It’s not a big deal.”

“That why you can’t look at us?” Bucky’s voice sounds amused.

Tony opens his eyes and sits up. The both of them are still flushed and there are bite marks that are slowly fading all over Steve’s chest. But they’re not touching anymore as Steve sits against the headboard like Tony and Bucky faces them both, legs crossed.

“I guess it had to come up at some point,” Tony mutters, rubbing at his jaw. “I just don’t see how we can logistically solve this…issue.”

“You could join us,” Bucky suggests shamelessly, eyes sparkling with mischief.

Tony’s lips twitch at that. “Maybe under other circumstances when I’m actually given a choice between staying and leaving.” _Or when you want me for more than sex_ , he thinks bitterly.

Bucky’s smirk disappears quickly. “Right, yeah.” He looks away guiltily, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

“I know this is not fair to you--” Tony starts.

“We’ll behave,” Steve promises.

Tony feels like a complete asshole. Not only are they required to constantly be near him and touch him, Tony’s also ruining their relationship. He knew this would happen. Didn’t he tell himself this would fucking happen? Fuck, this is the worst.

“Sir, Agent Romanov is calling you,” JARVIS interrupts Tony’s thoughts.

“Patch her through,” Tony mumbles.

“Hey boys,” comes Nat’s voice. Then it turns into a leer. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“We were actually just discussing having a threesome,” Tony informs her and then glares at Steve for the not so gentle shove he receives. Bucky snickers and Tony kicks at him.

“I’ll be quick then,” she says, laughter in her voice. “Clint and I found someone who might know something about your situation, Tony. We’re bringing her to SHIELD headquarters. ETA two hours.”

Tony sighs in relief. “Nat, you are a goddess amongst men.”

“I know,” she says casually. “See you later, boys. Have fun.” The smirk in her voice is unmistakable.

“At least someone’s having more luck solving this,” Bucky mutters.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Buckaroo,” Tony pats his knee. “There’s no one better than Natasha. Now let’s move it. The trip to SHIELD takes an hour at least and I want to be there as soon as that quinjet lands.”

***

Tony can’t pace and it’s making him frustrated. They’re waiting in one of SHIELD’s meeting rooms, Bucky and Steve on either side of him. He picks at the bandage on his left hand, Bucky’s bow is a lot neater than Steve’s from yesterday, and his knee is bouncing up and down.

What is taking them so long? They landed ten minutes ago, shouldn’t they have already made it through the base? What if the person Nat found refused to help Tony? What if there’s no way to help? What if the curse can’t be reversed or broken or whatever? Tony can’t even imagine imposing himself onto Bucky and Steve like this for the rest of their lives.

Steve’s hand lands on his thigh, thumb rubbing soothing circles, and Bucky takes Tony’s hand, intertwining their fingers. Tony slowly exhales.

The door opens and Tony shoots to his feet. Nat enters first, followed by a girl who looks to be a teen, and Clint steps in last, closing the door. The girl tilts her head, intensely looking at Tony’s chest, her eyes flare purple for a second.

“This is Reina,” Natasha introduces. “She’s a witch.”

Tony quirks up an eyebrow at that. “Is she now?” he asks. “And how long have you been practicing witchcraft?” he skeptically questions the girl. Not only does Tony think magic is a load of baloney, even after researching it for the past three days, he also doesn’t really trust a teenager to know much about it.

The girl only smiles. “Longer than you’ve been alive, Mr. Stark,” she replies easily. “Can I come closer?” Her eyes wander to Bucky for some reason. Only now Tony notices how tense Bucky has become, regarding the girl as a threat, no doubt. But Bucky nods, tersely, and she approaches.

Tony notes the myriad of bracelets, necklaces and rings she’s wearing, none of which make a sound as she moves. Her black hair is pulled into a ponytail and she’s got a simple t-shirt and jeans on, making her look like any other teen who’s too much into jewelry.

Reina stays a step away, her left hand lifting mid-air at the same height as Tony’s reactor. Her eyes turn purple again and she hums. “That’s unusual.” But her face remains pretty impassive. Stepping back a couple paces, she says, “I’ll need you to step forward, Mr. Stark. Just as much as it takes for the warning to flare up.”

Tony’s surprised and he’s sure he doesn’t hide it well as the girl smiles easily. He hasn’t told anyone about that. Bucky clings to Tony’s hand as he steps forward, just the three feet, but the tingle goes up his spine and his fingers start feeling numb.

“I won’t get a good read if you don’t let him go, Sergeant Barnes,” Reina says, sounding offhand.

It takes Bucky a couple of seconds and a muttered ‘it’s okay’ from both Tony and Steve for him to let go. Tony turns to her. “Do your worst.”

“I’d rather not have your partners on my bad side,” Reina smiles. “I’ll be gentle.”

She steps close to him. This time her eyes slide shut and she has both her hands in front of his chest. Tony shivers as he feels something slither over his chest and up to his throat. The same feeling spreads into his extremities, and the numbness intensifies. Tony’s lungs stop cooperating and he gasps for air, the already familiar sharp pain squeezing at his heart.

Hands grip Tony’s biceps and he’s seated on the couch as the pain ebbs away. He’s breathing heavily, focusing on the points of contact between him and Bucky and Steve.

“That was gentle?” Steve’s voice is ice cold.

Reina seemingly doesn’t take offence. She calmly looks at Steve. “I didn’t think there’d be resistance from the curse. It’s been modified.”

“But you know what it is?” Tony asks.

“I know the base curse,” she nods, and Tony holds his breath for the explanation he’s been waiting for for days. “I haven’t seen it in the last couple of centuries but it’s a bonding curse. It’s meant to bond the person the curse has been directed at to someone that would cause them the most emotional distress to be close to. The curse forces the person to endure emotional pain by being physically close to someone they don’t want to be, or choose physical pain by getting away from that person. Or in this case, two people. As I said, it’s been modified.”

“Why would it bond Tony to _us_ though?” Steve asks, a frown on his face.

Reina looks at Tony when she says, “That’s for Mr. Stark to answer.”

Tony knows exactly why, he’s been experiencing the why for several days now. But fuck that for being the reason.

“Tony?” Bucky asks, there’s a tiny note of hurt in his voice.

Tony doesn’t dare look at either of them, instead focusing on the witch in front of him. “Can you get rid of it?”

She shakes her head. “Not unless I know the extent of the modification. I would risk damaging your heart as it is and the tech you have in your chest is a factor I wouldn’t know how to deal with yet. We’d need to do some experiments. Alternatively, the caster herself could remove it.”

Tony nods, desperately thinking of a plan and not the talk he’ll have to have with Bucky and Steve once they leave this meeting room.

“So we catch the caster,” Natasha interrupts his thoughts, “and make her remove it. Or make her talk and then you’ll do it.” That about sums up Tony’s plan too.

“I would suggest to do your best to convince her to cooperate,” Reina tells Nat. Then she turns back to Tony. “I’m afraid without fully knowing how the curse has been modified, I might make a mistake when removing it. And it wouldn’t be pleasant without any of that anyway.”

“We haven’t had luck identifying her,” Clint speaks up for the first time. “Would you be willing to look at footage of her? Maybe you’ll recognize her.”

“Sure,” Reina shrugs a shoulder. She trails after Clint out of the room. Nat lingers for a second to give Tony a look that he doesn’t know how to interpret; it’s half pity and half anger. And then Tony’s left with just Steve and Bucky.

“Care to explain?” Bucky asks tonelessly.

‘No’ is Tony’s immediate answer but he knows it won’t go over well. So instead he says, “Not here. Let’s go home.”

***

“So you know what that witch meant,” Bucky is the first to speak as they exit the elevator onto the soldiers’ floor. And he doesn’t sound too happy.

“How are we the ones causing you emotional distress?” Steve questions. He’s more confused than angry.

Tony walks over to the couch, leaning back against it. Steve and Bucky follow after him, of course, standing in front of him and staring him down. Bucky has his arms tightly crossed, his eyes icy. Steve is slightly more relaxed but he also has his arms around himself.

Running a hand through his hair, Tony thinks where to start. He figures there’s really no good way to say ‘I’m in love with both of you and I’d like to insert myself into your relationship, and it breaks my heart that you want only sex from me’. So he goes for an approximation.

“I have feelings for you,” Tony admits to them finally. “Both of you,” he clarifies just so they’re a hundred percent clear.

Bucky frowns even more, now looking as confused as Steve. Steve only blinks at him. “Yeah, we know,” he says slowly.

Tony makes a complicated face that he hopes conveys his own confusion, fear, and worry. But then his face smoothes out when he figures they misunderstood him. “I don’t mean like the basic lust,” he explains. “I want a relationship with you. Long-term, preferably.”

There it is. Right in the open. Tony’s vulnerable heart is now theirs to do whatever they damn well please. And Tony’s fucking terrified. He gulps audibly, watching as they glance at each other.

“So what do you call the whole dating thing we’ve been doing the past month?” Bucky asks.

Wait.

What?

“Dating?” Tony echoes, hollowly. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Us? Going on dates?” Steve prompts, eyebrow raised.

“The three of us?” Tony asks for clarification and at their nod scrunches his nose. “We haven’t been going on dates.”

Steve rubs a hand over his face, sighing. Bucky opens and closes his mouth a few times before saying, “Five weeks ago I came up to you and specifically said ‘Tony, do you want to go to dinner with me and Steve as a date?’”

“Yeah, but…” Tony trails off. They didn’t mean it. He knows they didn’t mean it. Sure, there’s been a lot more touching after that and the flirting only intensified, but it wasn’t a _date_ date. It was just two guys having a date and their friend tagging along for some reason. Of course it was weird but Tony would never pass up an opportunity to be with them so he went.

“We walked you to your floor and kissed you goodnight after it,” Steve adds further.

They both kissed him on the cheek. Tony thought it was, once again, weird but he enjoyed it so he didn’t complain. “I don’t know,” he throws his hands up. “I thought you were being your gentlemanly selves.”

“Right,” Bucky draws out, snickering. “And the candlelit rooftop picnic? That was what? Just team bonding?”

“When you put it like that.” Tony rolls his eyes. Okay, so maybe he’s been an idiot. Or just too deep in denial to see what’s actually in front of him. But how could he even think, without being told explicitly, that these two wonderful men actually want a relationship with him and not a one off threesome.

His eyes snap to them quickly. “Wait. You never even tried to kiss me.”

“After that first date,” Steve starts, “when we kissed you on the cheek, you said ‘let’s go slow, guys’ and we’ve been doing just that. Bucky and I thought we’d let you make the first move when you’re ready.”

Tony said that as a joke, obviously. The tension was high after the double cheek kiss so he blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“And you didn’t even know we were dating,” Bucky huffs. He shakes his head. “I don’t know about you, Stevie, but maybe we should reconsider as he’s apparently a dumbass.”

“It’s okay, Bucky. We’ll just have to be very explicit from now on.” Steve jostles Bucky’s shoulder. “Tony,” he says, putting a hand on Tony’s jaw, drawing his full attention, “Bucky and I also have feelings for you, romantic feelings, and would very much like to have a relationship with you. Long-term, preferably.” There’s a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

Tony nods a couple of times. “Yeah, I’d like that too,” he mumbles out, not believing his luck but scarcely caring with the way Steve’s thumb rubs gently over his cheekbone.

Steve steps impossibly closer and leans down to kiss him. It’s gentle and slow and everything Tony thought it would be with Steve. When Steve draws back, Tony doesn’t even have time to open his eyes as Bucky’s lips touch his. Bucky’s kiss is more biting, literally, and fierce. Tony can still feel Steve’s fingers moving from his cheek to the nape of his neck as Bucky explores his mouth and he shivers.

Bucky groans and draws away from Tony. Tony’s eyes flutter open to the sight of Steve kissing down Bucky’s neck, one of his hands still in Tony’s hair. Bucky lifts Steve by the chin and their lips meet. Steve’s not as gentle with Bucky and Bucky is even more fierce with Steve; all Tony can do is watch both of them mesmerized and extremely turned on.

“Move this to the bedroom?” Bucky whispers against Steve’s lips.

Steve nods a couple of times, turning to Tony as Bucky does the same. “Tony?” he asks.

“Yes, absolutely,” is Tony’s eager answer. Now that he knows they’re both on board for the long haul, Tony finds it hard to think of reasons not to agree with the proposition.

They stumble to the bedroom inelegantly, all of them trying to touch and taste the other two as much as possible. Steve drags Tony on top of him as they reach the bed, their lips sliding together. Bucky is at Tony’s back, mouthing at the nape of his neck and tugging at the t-shirt Tony’s wearing to bite at his shoulder.

“What do you want, Tony?” Bucky whispers in his ear and Tony moans into Steve’s mouth at the husky tone.

Tony breaks away from Steve only to turn his head and kiss Bucky instead. Steve’s hand runs underneath Tony’s shirt, caressing the skin, and as Tony draws away from Bucky he sees Steve’s other hand moving up Bucky’s thigh.

“Anything, everything,” Tony manages to say as an answer to the question. He’s overwhelmed. There’s too many options and right now he has no capacity to determine which one is the best. Actually, Tony’s still trying to process the thought that this is really happening.

Bucky’s eyes turn to Steve to probably find a more suitable decision maker. “Something more specific, Stevie?”

Steve’s smile is something Tony’s never seen; it’s almost predatory. “I want his mouth on my cock. And I wanna watch you fuck him.” A shiver runs through Tony at those words. Gad damn Steve and his mouth.

“How about it, darling?” Bucky asks him, leaving barely there kisses behind Tony’s ear.

“Yeah,” Tony gasps. “One hundred percent behind that.”

“Good.” Bucky smacks his ass moving away from both of them to presumably get the supplies.

Steve sits up, with Tony in his lap now. “You’re gonna need to get more naked.” He grips the bottom of Tony’s t-shirt, removing it and tossing it somewhere not important.

“Only me?” Tony smirks at him, helping Steve get out of his shirt too.

The blue light of the reactor draws Steve’s attention. Tony squirms in his lap, his smile dissipating, but Steve’s hand only lands on his hip as the other moves up Tony’s torso to his chest. Snatching Steve’s hand before his fingers can reach the scars, Tony moves it down to his stomach. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

It’s not that Tony doesn’t trust Steve but he’s not yet ready to share that part of him. He’s not yet sure that this thing between them won’t collapse spectacularly, leaving Tony in shambles. Tony’s not sure he could survive another broken heart.

“Got it,” Steve nods, serious. “No touching the reactor. Buck?” He glances over Tony’s shoulder where Bucky is returning from the bathroom, supplies in both hands.

“Loud and clear,” Bucky confirms, tossing the lube and condoms on the bed. He leans down and his lips caress Tony’s neck as his hand moves down Tony’s back to lay over Steve’s on Tony’s hip.

A moan leaves Tony’s mouth only to be immediately swallowed by Steve. The mood quickly returns to the frenzied touches and kisses of before and soon they’re all naked. Tony ends up on his back, legs spread wide as Steve opens him up slowly while Bucky explores Steve’s mouth in the most obscene fashion.

“Fuck, Steve,” Tony gasps when Steve finds his prostate, rubbing at it deliciously. He grips at the sheets, twisting his fingers in them.

Bucky draws away from Steve, smirking at him, and leans over Tony, scratching his scruff on Tony’s shoulder and biting at his neck. Now that Tony can reach him, he runs his fingers up Bucky’s side, tangling them in his hair and drawing him in for a filthy kiss.

Bucky pulls away after a minute, hands still roaming Tony’s body but staying clear of the center of his chest. He whispers in his ear, “Would you like me opening you up next time? I could use my metal arm. Would you want that, Tony? You know how dexterous those fingers are, you built them yourself. I would prep you nice and slow, just like Stevie is doing now, but I would keep the pressure on that spot in your ass while I worked you. Do you think you could come just like that, darling? Just from my fingers in your tight hole?”

Steve is working a second finger into Tony, leaving soft kisses on his thigh and moving up to his hip, and Tony can’t help the sounds that leave him at that doubled with Bucky’s words. “Jesus, Bucky,” he groans. “Where did you learn to dirty talk like that?”

“Steve likes it. I’ve had practice,” Bucky smirks.

“He once got me off just with his words,” Steve murmurs against Tony’s stomach, leaving a biting kiss there that makes Tony inhale sharply, muscles in his abdomen jumping. Steve grins at Bucky. “That was a good night.”

Bucky grins right back. “Took a while but it was worth it in the end.”

Steve leans forward to capture Bucky’s mouth in a lazy kiss. Tony watches them, groaning as Steve expertly adds another finger, and can’t believe how fucking lucky he is. Never would he have thought that he could have this, both of them at the same time. Tony’s heart swells with emotion and he has to close his eyes before he loses it completely.

Bucky’s mouth returns to Tony’s skin, leaving bites across his ribs. Tony’s eyes flutter open and he meets Steve’s gaze, too warm and loving for what they’re doing now. Or maybe just completely right. Tony has no idea about anything anymore.

“He’s ready, Buck,” Steve says. His fingers leave Tony and Tony shudders at the sudden emptiness.

“How do you want me?” Tony asks, leaning up on his elbows.

“On your hands and knees,” Bucky answers immediately.

Tony hurries to comply, sighing contently at the ‘good boy’ and the caress he receives from Bucky. Steve moves too, Tony feels his hands running the length of his spine before he’s right in front of Tony. He lifts Tony’s chin slightly, leaning down for a kiss, and then guides Tony’s mouth to his cock.

Bucky’s hands caress Tony’s hips and ass. His metal hand moves to pump Tony a couple of times as he swallows down Steve, making Tony hum around him. Steve’s hand is in Tony’s hair, setting the pace to a slower one than the eager one Tony started with. Tony’s happy to oblige, swirling his tongue expertly over the head of Steve’s cock before slowly swallowing him down, eyes looking up, meeting Steve’s gaze. The sounds Steve makes are delicious.

“What a good job you’re doing, Tony,” Bucky murmurs, his front plastered to Tony’s back now, a hand trailing up and down Tony’s thigh. The words make Tony shiver, and he feels Bucky grin into his skin. Of course he caught on quickly.

Tony focuses on his task, wanting to hear more of those hitching breaths and little moans out of Steve. Bucky’s fingers wander to Tony’s hole, slipping in and fucking him. Tony can’t help but grind back, wanting more. Bucky mumbles some reassurances before his fingers are slipping out to be replaced by his cock. The lewd moan Tony lets out at that is only rivaled by Steve when said moan reverberates through him.

Bucky’s little grunts of pleasure are replaced by panting as he gets fully into Tony. He stays there a second and then starts moving, searching for that perfect angle. When he finds it, Tony pops off Steve to let out a drawn out, “Fuck, Bucky.”

Steve leans down to kiss Tony again, the moans that Tony’s letting out filling his mouth. But then Tony pushes him back, grabs his cock and puts his mouth to better use. Steve groans as Tony licks up his dick and suckles just at the head, pumping him with his hand. It doesn’t take long for Tony to build up a rhythm with the way Bucky’s moving inside him.

Steve tugs at Tony’s hair as a warning but Tony only sucks harder, watching through his lashes as Steve falls apart muttering Tony’s name. Tony swallows as much as he can, enjoying how Steve’s muscles ripple with the aftershocks.

Tony suddenly finds himself on his back, a gasp escaping him. Bucky drives into him wildly, leaning down for a dirty kiss and tasting Steve in Tony’s mouth.

“You’re killing me,” Tony hears Steve mutter.

Bucky pulls away, keeping his rhythm, and reaches for Steve. Both their hands grip Tony’s cock, stroking him fast and hard, while Bucky fucks him into the mattress. Tony comes with a jumbled mess of both their names.

He’s riding his high, watching Steve leave love bites on Bucky’s neck, as Bucky’s hips pump a few more times and then stutter. Gaze meeting Tony’s, Bucky falls, breathing raggedly. Steve kisses the corner of Bucky’s mouth, his cheek, the hinge of his jaw. All the while Tony’s eyes are locked on Bucky’s, a smile spreading across his face.

Bucky and Steve collapse on either side of Tony. Tony turns his head to kiss Steve and then Bucky. His mind is absolutely blank and he relishes the bliss.

Someone moves, Tony’s not sure who, and then he’s being cleaned up with a warm damp cloth. Tony thinks he mumbles a thanks of sorts.

“I think we broke him, Steve,” Bucky laughs.

“You might be right,” Steve huffs.

Kisses are pressed to Tony’s eyelids, his cheeks, and his mouth. “You with us?” Steve asks, amusement in his voice.

“I think,” Tony begins, opening his eyes finally, “you ruined me for anyone else. That was amazing.”

Bucky bites at Tony’s shoulder, a bit too hard, making Tony yelp. “There’s not gonna be anyone else. So you don’t have to worry about that.” His grin is sharp and dangerous.

“Oh, so _you’re_ the jealous one,” Tony comments.

“Bucky can get a little possessive,” Steve says, sending Bucky an air kiss as Bucky glares at him.

“I’m the right amount of possessive,” he mutters.

“Of course,” Steve agrees easily, leaning over Tony to kiss the pout off Bucky’s lips.

***

Steve makes them get out of bed and get lunch, so they make him not wear a shirt. It’s an even trade. Tony takes that as an opportunity to check in with Nat and ask her if Reina had any luck identifying the mystery witch.

“No, she doesn’t know her,” Nat tells him. Well, them as Steve and Bucky can also hear her. “But we showed Reina the footage of your confrontation with her and she thinks she could reverse the curse. She’s working on it now.”

Tony sighs. “That’s great news. Tell her thanks for me?”

“Sure,” Nat agrees. “How are you holding up?” The question is vague enough but Tony knows what she’s really asking about; Tony would be a fool to think anything escapes Natasha.

A smile spreads over Tony’s face as he glances at Bucky helping Steve warm up last night’s Chinese leftovers. If kissing his bare shoulders can be called helping. “I’m great, Nat. Perfect, actually.”

Bucky quirks up an eyebrow at him, lips still on Steve’s skin, and Steve smiles a tiny smile. Natasha, however, is not convinced. There’s a beat of silence on the other line before she says, “Steve, can you confirm I’m talking to Tony Stark because I could swear he actually meant what he said.”

Steve laughs. “It’s Tony. He’s good.”

Bucky leans over Steve to plant a kiss on Tony’s lips. Tony has to lean forward from where he’s sitting on the counter next to the microwave. Steve holds him by the waist so he doesn’t topple down. It’s a team effort and the kiss is even more delicious because of it.

“Keep us updated, Nat,” Tony asks after he’s pulled away from Bucky.

“Then don’t turn off your phones, boys,” Natasha says in the sweetest voice before ending the call.

There’s no more rush for Tony to get rid of the curse. They’ve got facial recognition running both at SHIELD and the tower, JARVIS is doing the calculations for the tracker, and Reina is taking care of the spell if they don’t manage to find the witch. Besides, Tony’s no longer under the delusion that Steve and Bucky don’t want him around. So Tony lets himself relax, having lunch with his partners and enjoying a lazy make out session afterwards.

Tony hums into Steve’s mouth as Bucky runs his hands over Tony’s stomach. Tony’s own hands are occupied with tangling into Steve’s hair and running up Bucky’s thigh. He actually feels absolutely content in this moment so he doesn’t notice the pain creeping up until it’s too late.

Tony’s too focused on the hands and lips on his body that the sudden sharp tug in his chest makes him gasp. And not pleasantly.

Bucky and Steve pull away immediately. “Tony?” Steve asks. He lifts a hand, putting it on Tony’s cheek and Tony flinches back at the contact.

“Don’t,” Tony grunts as the pain in his chest spreads all over, making him dizzy. He scrambles to his feet, shoving Steve and Bucky away from himself even when they protest. But then he manages to get more than three feet away from them and the pain stops like it was never there.

“Tony?” Steve repeats, eyes wide.

Bucky steps closer and Tony feels the telltale tingle of the warning up his spine. “Buck, stay back,” Tony orders in a sharper tone than intended.

Bucky stops immediately, hurt flashing over his features. “What’s going on?” he asks. There’s barely controlled anger in his voice.

“It hurts to touch you,” Tony mutters, voice disbelieving. “I can’t even get close to you.”

Steve eyes the distance between them. They’re still pretty close so Tony steps a couple steps back. The protests on both Bucky and Steve’s lips die when they see that Tony is completely fine.

“What. The. Fuck.” Bucky’s voice is ice cold.

“I have no idea.” Tony shrugs a shoulder. He rubs at his chest where the pain was most intense. “Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe the curse wore off.”

“You think that’s possible?” Steve wonders.

“Zero clue. I hate magic,” Tony tells him. He steels himself, taking the couple steps towards them. “Here goes nothing.”

Tony breeches the three feet radius and the tingle is back. He clenches his jaw, reaching out to touch both Bucky and Steve. They’ve got their shirts off so there’s plenty of skin for Tony to choose from. His fingertips press lightly to their chests and Tony snatches his hands back, shaking out the sudden bursts of pain radiating from his fingers and into his palms.

“Fuck magic,” Tony grumbles, stumbling back away from them and the warning dissipates. “I can’t fucking touch you. Shit.” He runs both his hands down his face.

“We’re going back to that witch,” Bucky growls. “Now.”

Neither Tony nor Steve disagree with him.

***

Tony has to keep himself away from Bucky and Steve as they rush the SHIELD corridors and that feels foreign to him after nearly four days of being joined at the hip. Natasha meets them at the Ops center.

“What the hell happened?” she asks.

“We don’t know,” Steve says, frustration leaking into his voice.

“Where’s the witch?” Bucky demands.

Natasha looks at both of them then at Tony who’s hanging back and her eyes narrow. “Follow me.”

They’ve set Reina up in some sort of library. The table she sits at is covered in books and papers. She’s writing intently when they walk in but lifts her head when Natasha speaks up.

“Reina, you’ve got guests.”

The witch blinks at them, her eyes flashing purple. “Ah,” she says as her eyes run over Tony’s chest. “So you’ve made up?”

“You know what’s going on with the curse?” Tony asks her. He stays away from Steve and Bucky as he walks closer to her.

“Yes, the footage was extremely useful,” she says. Her head tilts to the side as she keep staring at Tony’s chest. “It seems you’ve triggered the other part of it.”

“We’ve triggered something?” Bucky asks, alarmed, eyes instantly on Tony like he’ll drop dead any second.

“Non-lethal, Sergeant,” Reina waves away his worry. “We’re dealing with a double-edged bonding curse. Remember my explanation of the bonding curse from this morning?” They all nod. “Well, the double-edge part of it makes it so the reverse of the curse is also true. Think of it this way, before Mr. Stark felt emotional distress being around Sergeant Barnes and Captain Rogers, so the curse made him need close proximity. Now that, I gather, you’ve fixed the emotional distress, the opposite is true. Since Mr. Stark now wants to be close to both the Sergeant and the Captain, the curse makes him keep his distance. It’s ingenious, really.”

Tony’s jaw clenches. So he got a damn genius of a witch to curse him. Only the best for Tony Stark even when it comes to torturing him. Fucking great.

“She’s an amazing villain, I get it,” Tony mutters, leaning his hands on the table and looming over the girl. “Can you get rid of it now?”

Reina doesn’t seem fazed by his tone or demeanor. “It will take time for me to reverse engineer it. But yes, now that I know what we’re dealing with, I can do it.”

“How long?” Steve asks. Tony knows Steve’s affected by this more than he shows when he’s not using his please and thank yous.

“Three months at the least,” Reina answers him.

Tony’s jaw drops.

“Did you say three _months_?” Bucky growls out.

Reina purses her lips slightly. “If you want to risk his heart literally shattering into a million pieces, I could do it sooner, Sergeant.”

The clamp of Bucky’s teeth is audible.

Tony rubs a hand over his forehead. Months. Just fucking great. He looks over at Steve and Bucky, standing shoulder to shoulder and looking as miserable as Tony feels. “Start working on it,” Tony tells Reina.

***

The penthouse feels even more empty and impersonal when Tony returns to it after four days spent with Bucky and Steve. He walks over to the bar, pouring himself a drink and slamming it down before pouring in some more.

“JARVIS, status report on the facial recognition,” Tony asks, sinking down into the couch.

“No new updates, sir,” JARVIS’s tone is subdued.

Not that Tony expected anything different, but it still frustrates him. How can a person disappear from the face of the earth like that? Tony knows Nat and Bucky would be able to hide for months, but this witch is not trained in espionage and evading tactics. Or maybe she is. Fuck if Tony knows anything about this magic bullshit.

Taking a sip of his drink, Tony decides he needs more information. “JARVIS, call our new witchy friend.” As the line connects, Tony brings up the code for the tracker he started working on last night.

“Mr. Stark,” comes Reina’s voice a couple of seconds later. “I should start charging you by the crisis.”

A corner of Tony’s lip twitches upwards. “I need to know more about witches and your type of magic.” Maybe Reina would even agree to do some tests. This magic of theirs has to have some unique energy signature that would help narrow down the search. Tony needs to know how it works on an actual physical level, none of that connecting with mother earth crap.

“And what do I get out of this? I’m already helping you without being offered anything in return.” Tony can’t read her tone and that makes him nervous.

“What do you want?” he asks, putting the drink to his lips and taking a gulp.

“I want the caster after you’re done with her,” and there’s definitely something evil in her voice.

“Deal,” Tony says without considering it much even as something unpleasant runs down his spine. But desperate times.

***

Tony’s watching them from a distance. He can’t help how his eyes are immediately drawn to them when they enter a room. Bucky’s moves are fluid, graceful, and cat-like. Steve’s more sure footed, commanding the room with his presence alone. Both their eyes find his and Tony absolutely doesn’t care that he’s been caught staring.

They pour themselves cups of coffee, Tony’s eyes locked on the way Bucky’s fingers slide over the small of Steve’s back, drawing him into a side-hug. The heartache is almost physical as Tony wishes he could be next to them, wishes that he could plant a kiss on Bucky’s lips and nuzzle into Steve’s neck.

Tony rubs a hand over his face and focuses back on the papers in his hands. An arm makes its way onto his shoulders, the weight of it comforting. Pepper’s sitting close, closer than they ever do nowadays, and Tony appreciates it. He’s missed her.

“Here you go,” he tells her, handing back the signed papers. It’s a waste of trees if you ask Tony, but he knows Pepper needs an excuse to come round and check on him since this whole situation started, so he’s not calling her out on it.

“Thank you,” she says, drawing away, her fingers dragging over the line of Tony’s shoulders as she stands. Tony notices Bucky tracking the movement from across the floor, a grim expression on his face. Steve’s looking too, but his expression belies longing rather than jealousy.

“Don’t forget our lunch date,” Pepper tells Tony, retreating to the elevator.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Tony calls as the door closes and Pepper disappears. He feels cold all over.

The movement of the two soldiers coming into the lounge area draws Tony’s eyes to them again.

“Any updates?” Steve asks as he and Bucky settle in the loveseat on the opposite side of the room from Tony. Just like they didn’t want risking it with not being close enough to Tony when this started, they’re not risking it now by being too close to him. It’s absolutely frustrating.

“I’m nearly done with the tracker,” Tony says, picking up his StarkPad from where he left it on the coffee table. “We’ll know where she is the next time she uses magic.”

Reina helped Tony immensely over the last few days, answering every question he had. Tony was right about the magic having different energy signatures. He was able to create a code that tracks unusual energy spikes and from the readings of the confrontation Tony had with the witch when she cursed him, he determined what her signature is. The code still needs a few things tweaked but overall it’s nearly ready to go.

“Great,” Bucky says, voice dark. “I can’t wait to rip her heart out.”

“Bucky,” Steve chastises, jostling him with his shoulder.

“What,” Bucky’s not apologetic in the slightest. “I think that’s fair for what she put Tony through.”

Tony knows it’s probably not a healthy reaction to your partner talking about vengeance, but he smiles.

“We’re apprehending her, Buck,” Steve tells him seriously. “If we convince her to remove the curse, we won’t have to wait three months for Reina to do it.”

“Two months, three weeks, and two days,” Tony corrects him. That is, of course, if Reina’s timeline is accurate and it won’t take her longer. God, Tony hopes it won’t take her longer. This is killing him even more than when he was forced to be close to Bucky and Steve and thinking it meant nothing to them.

“And how are we going to apprehend her?” Natasha joins the conversation as she walks into the kitchen and pours herself a cup of coffee. “We didn’t even manage to get to her through the crowd of mind-controlled people last time.”

“Steve’s got ideas,” Bucky comments, hand going to the nape of Steve’s neck. “He’s been reading Strange’s books from cover to cover.”

Steve looks slightly embarrassed but he nods. “We won’t have any tactical advantages when going after this witch.”

Nat curls herself next to Tony, pressing in close, and he offers her a small smile. “That doesn’t sound promising,” she says to Steve.

“I know. Bucky and I discussed this.” He glances at Bucky.

The images that conjures up in Tony’s mind hurts more than the easy casual touches. Steve and Bucky reading those books and taking notes, curled close together. Them lying in bed late at night, fingers intertwined, and discussing what they found and how to use the information. Steve making breakfast as Bucky watches and talks to him about tactics.

Tony’s not been able to be with them for all of five days and he’s missing them like crazy.

“My suggestion was to snipe her from afar so she couldn’t use her magic on us,” Bucky tells them.

Natasha nods in agreement. And Tony can see the advantages of that too. “But we need her alive,” he says.

“Exactly,” Steve agrees. “The most dangerous thing for us is the curses. Witches don’t need much for that, a simple incantation does it. But I’ve talked to Strange and he promised to get us charms against them from a witch he trusts.”

“And you don’t trust Reina to do it?” Natasha narrows her eyes at him.

Steve purses his lips. He leans forward, elbows on his knees. “I know you’ve vetted her, Nat, but no, I don’t trust her.”

“The other attacks they can do are element based as they get their magic from nature,” Bucky continues. “So moving earth or water, that kind of stuff. We can at least fight that physically.”

“Okay,” Tony nods. He’s momentarily stunned by how much they actually know about this sort of magic when a week ago they didn’t even know it existed. His partners have clearly not been sitting idly by, and Tony feels something nice and warm settle behind his reactor. “But how do we stop her?”

“They express their magic through hand movements,” Steve explains and Tony remembers the hand waving that happened right before his body went into shock from the pain. “We need to restrict her hands with something durable and inflexible. That’s where you come in, Tony. Could you design something like that?”

Tony stares off into the distance, several ideas already running through his mind. He’ll probably need Bruce’s help but the both of them should be able to have something ready fast enough. “Of course I can,” Tony answers Steve and receives a smile in return. Bucky also sends him a grin, settling in close to Steve as Steve leans back again, an arm around Bucky’s shoulders.

There’s an unpleasant tug in Tony’s chest and he quickly casts his eyes away from them, rubbing at the reactor. “No time like the present,” he mutters, standing up and jostling Nat who gives him a glare. “I’ll start working on it now.”

He leaves the room without a glance back.

***

It’s half past midnight when Tony stumbles into the bedroom in the penthouse. The new tracker is working smoothly; they tested it out with Reina. Now all that’s left to do is wait until the witch casts a spell that uses a substantive amount of energy to trigger the tracker. He and Bruce have also started working on some designs for the gloves to use on the witch.

Tony sheds his clothes as he walks to the bathroom. He steps into the shower, turning the water hot and letting it pound onto his tense muscles. As has become usual, his mind wanders to Steve and Bucky.

That blissful afternoon they shared together runs through Tony’s mind once again. He remembers the heated touches, Bucky’s words, the noises Steve made, and he’s instantly hard. It’s not the first time he jerked himself off to these thoughts during the past few days and he knows it won’t be the last if he has to survive another seven weeks without them.

Tony’s reminded of that same morning when he woke up to the glorious sight of Bucky and Steve making out. That fuels him even more. He thinks about watching them, being able to see their hands roaming each other’s bodies, trailing over sweat slick skin, lips kissing and biting, leaving bruises in their wake.

Tony groans, back hitting the wall, the cold jarring him for a moment. His hand on himself slows as an idea forms in his mind. There’s no reason he couldn’t actually just watch them. Maybe not from as close as he’d like but he most certainly could be in the same room.

Swallowing hard and licking his lips, Tony shuts off the water. “JARVIS, are Steve and Bucky asleep?” he asks, getting out of the shower and quickly wiping at his wet skin.

“Sergeant Barnes and Captain Rogers are sparring in the gym,” JARVIS replies.

Tony thinks about his options and then throws on a pair of jeans. “Let me know when they finish.”

He goes down to their floor and into the familiar bedroom. It’s messy, lived-in, clothes strewn everywhere, and the bed is unmade. Tony loves it. The bedroom in the penthouse was always too neat and tidy, like no one lived there. To be fair, Tony does spend the majority of his time in the workshop so it’s not a surprise.

Tony walks to the bed, dropping onto it and enjoying being surrounded by textures and smells that bring comfort. He doesn’t know how long he spends cuddling the pillows before JARVIS informs him that Bucky and Steve are on their way up. Tony drops the pillows, scooting to the edge of the bed, estimating that the distance should be big enough.

He kneels, unbuttoning his jeans and sliding them low on his hips. Tony knows something about presentation and he’s not afraid to use every skill in his arsenal to get what he wants. Not that he thinks his partners will be opposed anyway.

“Do you think Tony’s still working?” Tony hears Bucky’s voice after a minute. It brings a smile to Tony’s lips. “We could go down and keep him company.”

“You mean, undress him with our eyes and imagine all the filthy stuff we want to do to him, right? ‘Cause then I’m on board,” is Steve’s reply that makes Tony’s fond smile turn into a full on grin.

“Stevie,” Bucky laughs.

And then Tony sees them in the doorway. Bucky, still laughing and leaning on Steve’s broad shoulders, and Steve, looking adoringly back at him. They both stop in their tracks just inside the door, their expressions changing to hunger the second they spot Tony.

“Evening, boys.” Tony offers them a languid smile, running a hand through his hair. “Good sparring session? I’m sad you didn’t invite me to watch.” He pouts a little.

“Aren’t you a sight, darling,” Bucky’s voice is husky, eyes slowly taking in every inch of Tony’s naked skin.

“Fuck,” is Steve’s less eloquent but no less flattering reply.

“I was thinking,” Tony says, sitting back on his haunches, spreading his knees wider as his hand travels down his thigh. Steve bites his lip, watching the movement eagerly, and Bucky clenches his jaw. “There’s no reason,” Tony continues, “that we can’t enjoy each other’s company even if we can’t touch.”

“You want Steve and me to put on a show for you?” Bucky catches on quickly, a smirk spreading across his face. His arm slips from Steve’s shoulders to wrap around his waist, toying with the hem of his t-shirt.

“That was my idea, yeah,” Tony grins back.

“A great idea as always,” Steve licks his lips. He then turns to Bucky to claim his lips in a heated kiss.

Tony watches avidly as they make their way to the bed, shedding shirts as they go, and drop onto it, right on the opposite edge. Bucky straddles Steve, their fingers intertwining as Bucky pins Steve’s hands to the bed, ravishing his mouth. Tony’s breath hitches. He moves himself back to lean against the headboard, fingers dipping below the waistband of his unbuttoned jeans.

Bucky’s mouth moves to Steve’s throat, biting and sucking. “Any--” Steve gasps then turns his head to meet Tony’s eyes. “Any requests?” he asks with a grin.

Tony nibbles on his lip, thinking, which is made difficult by the distraction of Bucky kissing down Steve’s chest, making Steve’s muscles twitch and ripple.

“Well?” Bucky inquires, eyebrow raised, as he stops right at the edge of Steve’s sweatpants.

“I want you to finger Steve open and then, Steve, I want you to ride Bucky until he comes inside you,” Tony tells them, voice dripping with desire.

“Anything for you, darling,” Steve promises, picking up the pet name.

Bucky only winks at Tony before reaching inside the drawer of the bedside table to get the lube. He kisses Steve fervently, fingers deftly working at unknotting the tie of Steve’s sweats. They both lose their clothes and then look at Tony expectantly. Tony scrambles out of the jeans, throwing them aside.

Eyes locked on Tony’s, Bucky works his lips up Steve’s thigh, Steve’s fingers in his hair. He reaches Steve’s cock, teasingly kissing it a few times, making Steve groan and tug at Bucky’s hair. Then Bucky’s reaching for the lube, hitching Steve’s legs on his shoulders. As he enters Steve, Tony lets his own fingers wander down, past his balls, and to his entrance, teasing it.

“Fuck,” Bucky swears as Steve keens. “Tony, finger yourself while I do the same to Steve. There’s lube in that bedside table too.”

Tony digs through the drawer with his free hand, depositing a generous amount of lube onto his fingers before returning them to his entrance. He feels eyes on himself as he works a finger in and then turns to see Steve’s eyes locked on him as Bucky sucks a bruise into his thigh.

Listening to Steve’s noises and watching Bucky work, Tony opens himself, slipping a second finger in and scissoring. It’s obviously not as good as it was when Steve did it but the sight to Tony’s right more than makes up for that.

“Bucky, shit, I’m ready,” Steve pants however much time later. His legs drop from Bucky’s shoulders and he sucks in a sharp breath as Bucky’s fingers leave him. They share a kiss, Bucky biting at Steve’s lips, and then Bucky’s on his back with Steve hovering over him.

Bucky coats himself in lube before settling his hands on Steve’s hips. “Come on, punk. Show Tony what you can do.”

Steve smirks, sinking down, a hand guiding Bucky’s cock to his ass. As he slowly seats himself in Bucky’s lap, Steve throws his head back, biting his lip hard, tiny groans escaping them both. Tony moans with them, his other hand finally moving to his dick.

Tony strokes himself to the rhythm that Steve sets fucking himself on Bucky’s cock and it’s glorious. His attention is focused on the ripple of muscle in Steve’s abdomen as he wantonly bounces up and down, on the slow slide of Bucky’s hand over Steve’s thigh, on the way Steve slows down and leans forward to lick into Bucky’s mouth before drawing away and starting up his rhythm again. Tony’s only half aware of both their names falling off his lips as he pleasures himself.

Bucky reaches for Steve’s cock, stroking it firmly with his metal fingers, and the image lights something up in Tony. “Jesus, fuck, Bucky,” Tony groans loudly. Their eyes meet and Bucky smirks.

“Buck,” Steve says as warning and Bucky’s gaze returns to him, pumping him faster until Steve arches his back beautifully, coming undone with the most delicious moan. He stops to breathe for a few seconds before starting to move again.

Bucky’s fingers dig into Steve’s thighs, his own hips meeting Steve’s with fervor. Steve braces his hands against Bucky’s chest, their eyes locked. Tony strokes himself faster, his orgasm washing over him just as Bucky moans out Steve’s name.

Panting fills the room for a minute or two and then Bucky says, “That was an amazing idea, Tony. Are you a genius or something?” He grins at Tony as Steve peppers kisses down his throat.

“Or something,” Tony mutters back, watching Steve settle against Bucky’s chest, head turned to Tony and a smile on his face.

Or maybe Tony’s just a sadistic fuck because however great that was, this moment now feels the absolute worst. Tony wants to reach out and trail his fingers over Steve’s cheek or brush Bucky’s hair off his sweaty forehead. Instead, he’s left with this insatiable desire to be close to them that squeezes painfully at his heart.

“I should go,” Tony murmurs after a minute of watching them caress each other’s skin and trade light kisses.

“What, no,” Steve protests immediately.

“You can’t sleep on Bucky all night, Steve,” Tony tells him, a soft sad smile on his face.

“I want to touch you so badly,” Bucky murmurs even as his hands grip tighter onto Steve.

“I know, Buck,” Tony near whispers. “I want both of you close to me.” He sighs, sitting up and getting off the bed. “But first we have to deal with the witch.” Pulling on his jeans, Tony grimaces at the mess he made of himself.

“And then we’ll have you to ourselves,” Steve says, eyes roaming Tony’s scarred chest.

Tony smirks. “I thought Bucky was supposed to be the possessive one.”

“Steve just hides it better usually,” Bucky comments as Steve rolls his eyes.

“Did you finish the tracker?” Steve asks, climbing off Bucky to sit against the headboard.

Tony nods. “It’s up and running as we speak. We just need to wait for her to make a move and we’ll know where she is.”

“I can’t wait until we get to kick her ass,” Bucky says, sitting up and getting a hair tie from his nightstand to tie his hair into a lose knot. A few strands spring free and Steve tucks them behind Bucky’s ear, receiving a kiss to the palm from Bucky.

“Yeah,” Tony runs a hand through his hair, decidedly looking away. “Night, guys.”

“Goodnight, Tony,” they chorus as Tony leaves their room and goes back to the empty and cold bed that waits for him in the penthouse.

God, Tony hates that witch with a burning passion.

***

The blaring of the alarm wakes Tony in the middle of the night. He sits up immediately, blinking at the map projected onto the wall in front of his bed.

“Sir, the energy signature has been detected,” JARVIS announces.

 _Finally_ , Tony thinks. He’s out of bed in an instant. “Inform the rest of the team. We’re leaving as soon as possible.”

The tracker has been operational for a whole week now but the witch hasn’t been active. Tony’s been steadily losing hope, the sight of Bucky and Steve together making something unpleasant twist in his gut. Recently, Tony started to fear that it would slowly turn into resentment and jealousy and that he wouldn’t be able to control it. So he’s been avoiding them, hiding out in his workshop and working on the gloves. He knows he doesn’t fool them, but Tony’s at the end of his rope with this thing. Even if they manage to capture the witch, there’s no guarantee she’ll lift the curse, and it would still take Reina six other weeks to reverse engineer the spell. Tony’s not sure he can hold out that long.

Walking into the hangar of the quinjet, Tony sees most of the team already there. Steve’s handing out charms that each member affixes to their person. According to Steve and Bucky’s research, they’re supposed to protect from curses and hexes. They don’t really have anything against immediate physical attacks, and Tony knows how that frustrates Steve, but they’ll have to deal.

Steve throws a charm at Tony when he gets close enough. “This is ridiculous,” Tony mutters. But it’s also ridiculous that he can’t get close to his partners without experiencing pain so Tony puts the charm around his neck before the suit envelops the rest of his chest and face.

Wilson is the last to join them, landing a few feet away before strolling up to Steve to receive a charm of his own. The team assembled, Steve looks around them, eyes lingering on Tony who’s standing the furthest away.

“We’re dealing with a magic user so stay alert and vigilant,” Steve begins. “The charms will protect you against curses but not physical attacks. Our goal is to capture and subdue.” He looks meaningfully at Bucky who stares blankly back at him. “Get her off her feet and immobilize her hands with the gloves Tony and Bruce designed. The magic she uses comes from her literal connection to the earth and gets realized through movement. As long as she can’t channel that energy and move, she can’t cast any spells.” The team nods their heads in understanding. “Let’s move.”

It takes them less than an hour to arrive close to the spot where the spike in energy was detected. As they step out of the quinjet, JARVIS scans the area. Several heat signatures light up on Tony’s HUD. “Seven hostiles 500 meters east,” Tony informs the team.

“Witches?” Barton asks, already nocking three arrows in his bow.

“Gotta assume so,” Tony responds.

They silently make their way through the forest. Chanting can be heard the closer they get to the targets. It’s not in any language that JARVIS has on his servers.

The tree line thins as a clearing appears in front of them. Seven women stand around a pyre, heads tilted up, chanting in unison.

“Reina, do you know what they’re doing?” Nat asks.

On account that Steve doesn’t trust the witch, she has been left behind at SHIELD. But he did agree to give her access to what Tony’s seeing and hearing through the suit as well as the whole team’s comms.

“Summoning a greater demon,” Reina responds as impassive as ever.

“Demon?” Wilson echoes. “Now demons are real too? What the fuck, man?” The last remark is directed at Steve who only shrugs.

If Tony hadn’t been living with a curse for nearly three weeks, he would’ve laughed at that. Demons? Really? But as it is, he’s more exhausted of this magic bullshit than anything.

“Let’s break up this party then, huh?” Tony suggests and doesn’t listen to Steve’s protests as he takes to the air with the whine of his repulsors.

The chanting stops immediately and seven pairs of eyes lock on Tony. “Didn’t expect to see you any time soon, Mr. Stark,” the witch that cursed Tony speaks up. Her lips twitch upwards. “Didn’t like my gift?”

Tony near rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’m here to return it,” he says before powering his repulsors and blasting at them. It doesn’t do any damage, Tony didn’t expect anything less, as an energy shield materializes in front of the witches. But it does give the team time to sneak behind them and attack.

Tony dives down after the witch, leaving the rest to the rest of the team. He keeps up with the repulsor blasts, for once in his life listening to Steve’s advice and trying to knock her off her feet. But she keeps throwing up those shields, so Tony changes tac and lands heavily on the ground, going for a more direct approach.

The witch falls to her knees, hands in the ground, and Tony manages to take only a couple of steps before his HUD flashes red and he’s literally rooted to the spot. Tree roots wind around his feet and up his legs, squeezing around the armor, the pressure dangerously close to inflicting damage.

“I fucking hate magic,” Tony mutters, blasting at the roots to get himself free.

“Iron Man, your sixth!” Natasha grunts over the comms but it’s too late as something winds around Tony’s neck and brings the suit crashing down.

Tony struggles against the bonds all around him. The HUD and JARVIS inform him that his left hand repulsor is out and that his chest-plate is near to being cracked open. Some substance slithers in between the plates of the suit, the warning for that lost in all the red already in Tony’s face, before everything just shuts down. Swearing, Tony activates manual release and the suit opens, tree roots snapping from around it.

Tony takes a roll-dive, just like Bucky taught him, to his right. He’s on his feet in an instant, the still operational right hand repulsor aimed at the witch. He takes a shot, she throws up a shield, approaching him.

“Don’t you want to hear my villainous plan?” she asks, amusement in her voice. Her wrists turn sharply, fingers poised upwards as claws.

“Not particularly, no,” Tony answers, diving around and blasting at earth spikes that threaten to impale him.

He nearly crashes into Barton, who’s running backwards, shooting arrow after arrow. But then Barton gets flung into the air and crashes into the ground, rolling a few feet. Tony glances behind himself, seeing the witch who was after Barton and blasting the repulsor at her. She goes flying back, knocking into Bucky who manages to flip back and land on his feet.

“The fuck, Tony?” he shouts across the field, throwing his arms out.

“My bad,” Tony shouts back before focusing on his own hostile.

The witch now stands impassive, glancing from Tony to Bucky, a weird sort of sharp smile on her face. So Tony distracts her with more repulsor blasts. She dodges quickly, showing off her gymnastics skills.

“It’s a good plan. I’m sure you’d be impressed,” she near sing-songs. Tony really didn’t expect her to return to their pseudo-conversation. Her palms face down, fingers wiggling.

“Does it involve your idea of changing the world for the better with violent means?” Tony grunts as his right knee hits the ground when it starts shaking just under him. He catches himself on his hands and rolls away. “’Cause I’ve heard that before.”

“You’re a sarcastic little shit,” she grins at him, a mere few feet away from Tony. “I like you.”

“Can’t say that the sentiment is returned.” Tony pushes himself up, trying to grab at her, restrain her hands, but she dips low, swiping a foot at Tony and landing him on his back. He’s got a grip on her wrist though and she comes tumbling down on him, catching herself with her free hand by his head.

“Buy a girl dinner first,” she smirks. Tony’s never had a villain flirting with him mid-battle before. He doesn’t quite know how to feel about it.

Tony’s free hand pushes at her side as he rolls them over. She tries to reach for the ground but Tony grabs her hand, pushing it over her head to join her other arm, and now he’s got both her wrists in his grip. She struggles but the suit glove is keeping her in a near death grip.

“Gotta say, not how I saw my day going,” she pants, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

Tony snorts. “Yeah, me neither.”

“Your boys are getting jealous,” she looks off to the right, wiggling her eyebrows as her leg slides over Tony’s thigh, drawing him closer to her.

The battle has died around them, Tony notices. The team are making sure the rest of the witches are safely restrained with the gloves, but Bucky is staring right at them, his glare murderous.

“Don’t you think it’s enough of that, Tony?” Steve asks, his voice hard. Tony glances over at him, seeing the tense line of his shoulders and the frown around his mouth.

Tony looks back down at the witch under him. “You did that on purpose,” he accuses.

She grins, too care-free for someone whose villainous plot just got spoiled. “Oh, I knew there was no chance I was winning against Avengers. There’s no fun in being a sore loser.”

There’s something about her that charms Tony. He’s not quite sure what it is, maybe effects of the curse or some other magic bullshit, but he can’t muster up the anger he’s felt for her the past couple of weeks.

“So gracious of you,” Tony comments, making her stand with him.

“You should see me in bed, handsome,” she says as he leads her to the group of witches and his team. “I’m pure grace and lust incarnate.”

“Are you seriously propositioning me after you cursed me and tried to kill me?” Tony quirks an eyebrow at her, an amused smile on his lips.

“You lose a hundred percent of the shots that you don’t take,” she quips back.

Tony’s met with several disapproving looks when they reach the team. “What?” he asks, bewildered.

“You fucking well know what,” Bucky growls out, turning around and marching off in the direction of the quinjet.

Steve only shakes his head, helping Natasha and Barton round up the witches. He and Wilson take the lead with the witches between them, Nat and Barton flanking them, and Tony takes up the rear. They get the witches situated and strapped in once in the quinjet. Tony gets a spare pair of the gloves to replace his suit armor from around the witch’s hands.

“So what’s your name?” he questions as he steps back, arms crossing over his chest.

“Reina didn’t tell you?” she asks, seemingly surprised. “I thought she was working with you.”

“She knows you?” Barton asks, coming to stand next to Tony. “She told us she didn’t.”

The witch shrugs a shoulder. “You can never trust a witch. But we go way back.”

“How’d you know she works with us?” Nat joins them, the quinjet on autopilot for now.

“She told me herself. Sent a voice mail along the lines of ‘I will carve your heart out nice and slow once the Avengers hand you off to me’. She’s kind of evil too,” she stage whispers the last part.

“Didn’t you vet her, Natasha?” Bucky asks. He and Steve are hanging back, for Tony’s sake, he supposes.

“I did,” Nat responds, voice cool. “She seemed clean.” Tony can see the way her lips set into a grim line, betraying the façade.

“What does she want with you?” Steve asks this time.

The witch shrugs a shoulder. “Revenge. I might have screwed her over big time a couple centuries back. I can guarantee you that she’s going to murder me the moment she sees me.”

Tony’s not even going to think about the centuries comment. He’s not sure he can deal with immortality being a thing now too.

“We won’t let that happen,” Steve tells the witch. “You’re going to answer for your crimes.”

“I told Reina she could have her after we’re done with her,” Tony informs the rest of the team.

“That’s not your call to make,” Steve argues immediately, tensing up even more.

“If it gets the curse off Tony faster, then Reina can have at her,” Bucky comments with a shrug of his shoulder and receives a disappointed look from Steve for that.

“She’ll kill me,” the witch says matter-of-factly. “And if I’m dead, then your lover boy here will be stuck with the curse. So how about I make you a deal?”

“You’re not in a position to make deals,” Steve says.

“Reina won’t be able to lift the curse on her own no matter what she’s told you,” the witch tells him anyway. “So how about you don’t let her anywhere near me and in exchange I lift the curse myself?”

“Literally five minutes ago you said ‘you can’t trust a witch’,” Tony tells her. “Why should we believe anything you say?”

She grins at him, her eyes tracking down Tony’s form. “I bet it’s lonely not being able to get close to your lovers.” She leans forward, eyes now locked on Tony’s and Tony feels goosebumps rise on his skin. “Do you feel that little squeeze of your heart when they touch each other? Do you dig your fingernails into your palm when you want to reach out to them but know that you can’t? How long do you think you’ll last, Tony, before it gets too painful and you won’t be able to stand being in the same room with them? How long until you start to resent them for it? It’s a thin line between love and hate. Are you willing to find out just how much you can hate someone you once loved?”

Tony takes it back. She’s a fucking evil bitch and he definitely hates her. And she clearly has some sort of insight into this curse that Tony doesn’t quite understand because how else did she manage to voice Tony’s exact fears over this.

“Tony,” Steve’s voice is barely a whisper and oh so broken.

Tony glances at them. Both their expressions are shuttered. Tony’s eyes track down the line where they’re pressed shoulder to shoulder and he ends up staring at their intertwined fingers. The painful tug makes itself known and Tony can’t breathe for a moment. He turns his eyes away, rubbing at his chest.

The witch is smiling a knowing smile. “How about it, handsome?”

“Deal,” Tony says, an unpleasant tingle running down his spine.

***

They get back to SHIELD headquarters and the rest of the witches are taken into custody while Bucky not so gently drags the caster in the other direction. Tony nearly protests at the rough treatment but then remembers her words and how she enjoyed seeing him squirm at them and so he keeps his mouth shut.

The interrogation room they end up in hardly accommodates this many people as Natasha decided to join them as well but it’s the closest private room so whatever.

“If you try something funny, you will regret it instantly,” Nat threatens the witch, hands on the gloves she’s about to take off.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to a little punishment from you, gorgeous,” the witch smirks over her shoulder at Nat.

The gloves come off and the witch wiggles her fingers in front of herself. Her eyes flash purple for a second. She looks at Tony. “Well, come closer. I need to be touching you for this.”

Tony grits his teeth but moves closer as she requested. “If you kill me, you’re not leaving this room alive.” It’s not so much a threat. Tony knows for a fact that Bucky and Steve, and especially Nat wouldn’t hesitate.

She rolls her eyes. “I know, I know, you’ve got extremely protective boyfriends. Now this may hurt a little.”

The witch presses her palm flat against Tony’s sternum, just below the reactor. She mumbles something under her breath, purple sparks dancing around her fingers. The warning flares up, making Tony’s fingers numb instantly. Then comes the painful tug at his heart and his lungs close up. The pain spreads rapidly over his whole body and Tony’s not sure if he actually screams or just thinks about doing it. It burns all the way from the crown of his head to his toes and then it disappears in an instant.

Tony catches himself on the table, gulping down oxygen. There’s a lightness in him now, like a weight has been lifted off. He rubs at his chest, raising his eyes to the witch. “That was not a little,” he grits out.

She shrugs a shoulder, not bothered. Her hands are already gloved back, no doubt courtesy of Nat. The witch glances at Bucky and Steve. “Go on, give it a try.”

They move carefully, closing in on Tony but stopping at the three feet radius. “Anything?” Steve asks.

Tony shakes his head. There’s no tingling, no warning that they should stay back whatsoever.

Bucky reaches out first, his fingers light as a feather on Tony’s cheek. Tony closes his eyes, exhaling slowly. And then he’s being tugged forward by his waist, crashing into Steve’s chest as Bucky presses against his back. There are lips on Tony’s neck and insistent ones on his mouth and all Tony can do is sigh in relief and pleasure.

“Maybe not at work, boys?” Nat interrupts them with a no doubt amused grin but Tony doesn’t check, instead choosing to nuzzle into Steve’s throat and lacing his fingers with Bucky’s over his stomach.

“You good to take care of everything?” Steve asks her.

“Obviously. Now leave,” is the response he gets and Tony’s quickly ushered out of the room, two super soldiers not stopping touching him even for a second.

***

It takes them ten minutes to be back in the tower. Steve reasons that someone will have to fly the quinjet back anyway, might as well be them. Tony sees through him but doesn’t comment.

Tony’s pressed against the elevator wall the instant he steps through, Bucky’s tongue licking into his mouth without preamble, his thigh slipping between Tony’s legs. Fingers trail down Tony’s left arm, unhooking it from Bucky’s shoulders, and then lips get pressed to his palm, his wrist, moving up and up until Bucky’s mouth moves down Tony’s neck and his lips get captured by Steve. Tony’s lungs protest for air but Tony honestly can’t find it in himself to care about trivial things like breathing.

They spend a lot more time in the elevator than the trip to the soldiers’ floor requires before they move out of it. Between the two eager men, Tony quickly loses his clothes as they make their way to the bedroom. He ends up in a still-clothed Steve’s lap, getting love bites sucked into his neck by both of them.

“You’re still wearing clothes,” Tony pants, pawing back at Bucky behind himself while simultaneously tugging at Steve’s shirt.

Their mouths are off him long enough for them to lose their shirts. Steve kisses him thoroughly, his hips already moving beneath Tony. “What do you want, darling?” Steve whispers against his lips.

“For one of you to fuck me,” is Tony’s immediate answer. He’s been wanting that for days, it’s not exactly a hard question.

Bucky huffs against his shoulder. “You’ve prepared your answers this time.”

“I’m not caught off guard this time.” Tony turns to his right, managing to successfully fit his lips against Bucky’s, moaning when Bucky bites at his bottom lip before devouring his mouth.

“You wanna do it, Stevie?” Bucky asks, heated gaze locked on Steve even as his fingers trail up and down Tony’s sides. “Tony hasn’t had you inside him yet. Wanna show him how good you can fuck his tight hole?”

“Fuck, Bucky,” Steve near growls. He grabs onto Bucky’s neck, pulling him in for a bruising kiss over Tony’s shoulder. A shiver of pleasure runs over Tony at the sight. “Yeah, yeah, I want that,” Steve mutters when he’s released Bucky. “Tony?” he asks for confirmation.

“Absolutely, yes,” Tony agrees in a heartbeat.

Tony maneuvers to lie on his back as he enjoys the way too fast strip show he gets. Maybe he can convince them to make it longer next time. Then Bucky kneels on the bed, drawing Tony to his knees as well and kissing him more tenderly than any of the kisses they shared today.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Bucky murmurs against Tony’s lips. His hands are running down Tony’s arms, then up his sides to his back, and dipping low again to grab Tony’s ass.

“Missed you too,” Tony tells him, peppering kisses over Bucky’s stubbly jaw, biting at the hinge of it and moving lower to his neck.

“I swear to god, Steve, if you say ‘missed you three’, I will throw you out of this room,” Bucky sounds serious and Tony has no idea what kind of expression on Steve’s face prompted that but he huffs a laugh into Bucky’s skin.

“I wasn’t gonna say it,” Steve protests. Tony feels his fingers on his back moving down each vertebrae. He shivers. “Swear on my honor.”

Tony turns to look at him skeptically. “Like you have any of that.”

Steve narrows his eyes at him, smacking Tony’s ass and making him yelp. “Another wise remark out of you and you’re fingering yourself.”

“I’ll be good,” Tony promises immediately.

Steve smiles, leaning in to kiss him. His and Bucky’s hands wander over Tony’s skin, reaching his hole and teasingly circling it before Steve adds lube and pushes inside him. They work Tony open together, both their fingers moving in and out of him in tandem. Which gives Tony an idea.

“You should,” he stops as a moan escapes him when they brush his prostate.

“We should what, darling?” Bucky asks, a grin in his voice.

“You should totally fuck me together some time,” Tony pants out when he’s able to. He’s clinging onto Bucky, forehead pressed to his metal shoulder. “Would love to feel both of you inside me at the same time.”

Steve groans behind him, clearly intrigued by the idea. Bucky hums approvingly. “Stevie, aren’t you glad he’s a genius? Coming up with all these great ideas.” Tony preens at the praise, receiving kisses to his shoulders from both of them.

Soon he’s got four fingers up his ass and mutters that he’s beyond fucking ready. So Steve guides Tony into his lap, filling him up as Tony seats himself. “Oh fuck, Steve,” the moan leaves Tony’s lips as his back presses to Steve’s chest, head falling back onto Steve’s shoulder.

Steve helps him start up a rhythm, holding Tony’s hips with a deliciously bruising grip. Tony’s panting, bouncing on Steve’s lap, and his gaze returns to Bucky, who’s sat back, stroking himself and enjoying the show if the smirk on his lips is anything to go by.

“C’mere,” Tony mumbles out between moans of pleasure, reaching out a hand to Bucky.

Bucky obliges, moving closer, fitting his lips with Tony’s. He draws back for a second, coating his fingers in more lube before pressing back up to Tony, lining their cocks together and working them both with his hand. Tony’s head falls back again at the intense pleasure.

Bucky’s kissing Steve, his hand moving in tandem with Steve’s thrusts into Tony, and it doesn’t take long for the pleasure to crest over Tony, drawing both his partners’ names out of him. Bucky follows suit, finishing all over himself and Tony. The sensation makes Tony clench and that sends Steve over the edge, his moan of ‘fuck, Tony’ sending shivers down Tony’s spine.

Tony’s absolutely wiped out, doesn’t even hide his inability to stay on his knees any longer, and hits the mattress as soon as Steve pulls out. There’s some shuffling around, someone wipes Tony off, but he’s beyond caring.

Tony snuggles into the closest body he can find, feels kisses pressed against his neck and shoulder, hands trailing over his side, and he sighs, completely content.

“Missed you three,” Steve murmurs into Tony’s hair, a grin audible in his voice.

“Out, Rogers,” Bucky growls out.

There’s a smile on Tony’s lips as he drifts off, Steve’s frame shaking with laughter beneath him.

***

Tony wakes up incrementally. Lips touch his cheeks, his eyelids, and then the curve of his mouth. Tony opens up willingly at the bite to his bottom lip and lets Bucky explore his mouth.

“Mmm,” Tony hums, still not opening his eyes. “Steve?” he asks.

“Actually, it’s Bucky,” there’s an amused scoff and metal fingers trail over Tony’s cheekbone and into his hair.

“I know who I’m in bed with,” Tony grins, receiving a sharp tug on his hair. He finally opens his eyes meeting Bucky’s fond gaze. “Where’s Steve?”

“Making breakfast,” Bucky informs him. Then he looks at the clock on the bedside table. “Or lunch I should say.”

“And you’re not helping because?” Tony prompts. Not that he’s not enjoying having a naked Bucky all to himself, running hands down his stomach and feeling the muscles there twitch.

“Didn’t want you to wake up alone,” Bucky answers matter-of-factly. He leans forward, kissing Tony again.

“How nice of you,” Tony mutters against his lips.

“Hey, I’m nice,” Bucky protests, drawing up.

“Sure you are, doll,” Tony grins at him.

Bucky rolls his eyes then slaps Tony’s thigh. “Time to get up, sunshine.”

Tony gets dressed in whatever Bucky throws at him, which includes a worn t-shirt and sweatpants. They make their way to the kitchen, Bucky clinging to Tony, kissing his neck and shoulders.

Steve smiles when he sees them entering. There’s a stack of pancakes on the plate next to the stove that he adds another one to before leaning over to grab Tony’s waist and pull him closer for a kiss. “Hey,” he says in greeting.

“Pancakes, huh?” Tony eyes the stack. “You do know the way to my heart, Steve.”

“Told you,” Bucky says beside Tony, leaning in for his own kiss from Steve.

Tony hikes himself onto the counter, enjoying the view of his partners lazily making out and shoving a pancake in his mouth. It’s pure bliss.

“Agent Romanov is calling, sir,” JARVIS announces, making Tony frown. It can’t be good news.

“JARVIS informed me it’s safe to call you,” Nat says once she’s patched through.

“As safe as it’ll be from now on,” Tony shrugs a shoulder, taking another bite.

“What’s up, Nat?” Steve asks, lifting a hand to run his thumb over the corner of Tony’s mouth where some syrup escaped. Bucky licks it off, eyes on Tony, and Tony nearly misses Nat’s words.

“The witches,” she says with a sigh. “They escaped. And we can’t find Reina anywhere.”

“Fucking amazing,” Tony mutters, thumping his forehead against Steve’s bicep. Bucky’s fingers move to the nape of his neck, kneading.

“We found them once, we’ll find them again,” Bucky assures him.

“Yeah,” Nat draws out. “The sooner the better, guys. Half of SHIELD agents have been turned into frogs. And unless you think kissing them will revert them back, I suggest we get back to work.”

Tony groans audibly. “Have I ever told you how fucking much I hate magic?”


End file.
